Global Courant
As fascinating as they are defenseless, as complex as they are fragile, and with a beauty that is as dazzling as it is threatened, orchids constitute a family of plants whose flowering can be compared to a gem, due to its undeniable symbolic, aesthetic and, above all, biological value. There are thousands of species around the world, and in Guatemala there are around 800, although many of them have practically disappeared from the natural habitat.
The total or partial destruction of forests, the change in land use, the disappearance of certain types of insects, climate change and rainfall patterns are some of the factors that affect the survival of various species of flora, among them, of course, the orchids. To this is added their extraction, sometimes from national natural reserves, to market them. This often has a fatal outcome because they are deprived of their interaction with fungi or key environmental components for their subsistence.
There are two research and conservation efforts promoted by the Landívar, Del Valle and San Carlos universities of Guatemala, and also idealistic, educational and patriotic projects such as the Experimental Station of the biologist Fredy Archila, the Orquigonia private reserve or activities of the National Association of Orchidology , which each year presents an exhibition of specimens of this species, an activity that this time reaches its 50th anniversary and will take place this week.
This attention is neither accidental nor recent. As early as 1722, the famous colonial chronicler Fray Francisco Ximénez included descriptions and drawings of orchids in his work Historia Natural del Reino de Guatemala, a topic widely explored by the ethnobotanist and academic Miguel F. Torres. In the same sense of dissemination, Revista D, from Prensa Libre, publishes weekly, full page, a photograph of a Guatemalan orchid, some characteristics, its distribution and risk status, which is usually medium or high. It is not just about colorful or exotic vegetables, but true ecosystem indicators.
It is not an exaggeration to affirm that the extinction of orchids in certain regions of the country constitutes a prelude to environmental impacts on human communities. In other words, the increasing scarcity of these species should not be taken so lightly. They are more than just an ornament or a whim of nature: they are the result of thousands of years of adaptive evolution, which is often endemic, which means that it only exists in Guatemala.
Finally, it should be remembered that one of the national symbols, the white nun, once abundant in the mountains of Quiché and the Verapaces, today practically does not exist in the wild. The efforts of the biologist Archila to reproduce it and reinsert it in private farms have had satisfactory results.
The possibility of orchid species not recorded by science still exists, but it is diminished by the continuation of destructive practices, often driven by criminal groups or by misunderstood claims for access to agricultural land. The orchids are us.
