Many development projects across the world have, over the years, put the habitats of plants and wildlife at risk. But when researchers in Kerala were faced with the possibility of thousands of orchids losing the trees they called home to road-widening projects, they began asking a rather unusual question: could these plants be relocated to a new habitat? Would they continue to grow, flower and reproduce even after being moved somewhere new? In an effort to give the orchids another chance at survival, scientists set out to find them a new home, with plenty of questions about whether they would adapt to their unfamiliar surroundings.
A study published in the Plants journal on October 15, 2026, looked at whether thousands of orchid plants could be saved from destruction through a rescue relocation effort. The research was carried out by Mithun Venugopal, Pradeep N. Sukumaran and Viswambharan Sarasan, with researchers from the KSCSTE-Malabar Botanical Garden and Institute for Plant Sciences in Kozhikode and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the UK.
Why were the orchids at risk?
Orchids are often associated with colourful flowers and ornamental gardens, but there is much more to this plant family than meets the eye. Some species grow on other plants, particularly trees, and are known as epiphytic orchids. Unlike parasitic plants, they do not take nutrients from their hosts. Instead, the trees provide them with a surface on which to grow, while their roots absorb moisture from their surroundings. This reliance on trees for growth, however, can make them vulnerable when their host trees are removed. A tree that is felled may take an entire community of orchids with it, including plants that have been growing there for years. The Western Ghats, which extend through the state of Kerala, provide a distinctive landscape. Their rainfall and climatic conditions offer habitats for numerous species, many of which have a limited distribution. However, with road development and widening projects bringing changes to the landscape, roadside trees have increasingly become vulnerable to removal.
Giving the orchids another place to grow
The researchers rescued 27,324 mature orchids, belonging to 21 species, from trees that had already been felled or were scheduled to be removed during road-widening work. These plants were subsequently relocated to three sites in Kozhikode: Sarovaram Bio Park, Malabar Botanical Garden and Kappad Beach. These species have particular growing requirements, and simply attaching them to another tree does not guarantee that they will survive. The type of host tree, the amount of moisture available, sunlight and the surrounding environment can all influence how well they establish themselves. The three locations selected for the rescued orchids also offered rather different conditions. Sarovaram Bio Park is an urban wetland with mangrove cover, Malabar Botanical Garden has a mixture of shaded and marshy areas, while Kappad Beach is an exposed coastal landscape, where plants face stronger winds, sunlight and air laden with salt.
More than 19,500 orchids survived
The findings, assessed over a period of 12 to 24 months, were encouraging. Of the 27,324 orchids relocated, 19,511 survived, accounting for 71.4% of the plants. More interestingly, the effort did not merely keep them alive. Researchers found that 5,224 of the surviving orchids had flowered, while 1,934 went on to produce seed capsules. The results, however, varied across the three sites. Sarovaram Bio Park recorded the highest survival rate, with 87.7% of the relocated orchids surviving there. At Malabar Botanical Garden, the survival rate stood at 47.3%, while Kappad Beach recorded 28.7%. The researchers also relocated 6,126 plants belonging to 12 regionally endemic species, of which 3,368 survived. This meant that approximately 55% of these orchids had managed to establish themselves in their new surroundings. Some of these species are associated with cooler, hilly and mist-covered habitats, making their relocation to sites closer to sea level particularly challenging.
Taking conservation beyond the plants themselves
There was another aspect to the project that extended beyond relocating the orchids. Researchers also wanted visitors to become more familiar with the plants growing around them, particularly species that might otherwise go unnoticed. Therefore, at Sarovaram Bio Park, 10 selected orchid species were provided with QR-code labels, allowing visitors to scan them and learn more about the plants. Over two years, these labels generated 126,251 scans.
To their surprise, even orchids with smaller and far less conspicuous flowers gained traction. The researchers also found that root growth was an important indicator of how well the relocated orchids were performing. However, they cautioned that producing flowers and seed capsules does not necessarily mean that a new population will be able to sustain itself. Only longer-term monitoring can help researchers understand whether the plants can reproduce successfully and establish self-sustaining populations. But ultimately, the study has provided insight into the possibilities of exploring more dynamic approaches to nature conservation.
