ORCHIDS

Prepared by: Vladimir Golubić

Orchids (Orchidaceae) are a very rich species of the young family of monocotyledonous. They evolve quickly and adjust to different habitats. They are largely represented in the Mediterranean area because of its mild climate. In the ecology of orchids, commensalisms with  different types of fungi is essential -  their seeds have lost nutritive tissue so they can sprout and develop only with the help of  other organisms. Those other organisms are always some kinds of fungi which live on the ground. Therefore, orchids are commensal organisms. They are distributed irregularly and often come  in mixed groups which are scattered far away from one another. Most of the Mediterranean orchids live on poor soil and a  small number live in forests. Lots of them have found the best conditions for survival in the regions shaped by human activities; vineyards, olive groves and the fields created by livestock grazing. Nowadays rapid changes of  farming methods and the usage of chemicals have endangered them and created major changes in the vegetation of the Mediterranean as a whole. Their space is becoming more and more limited.

It's interesting that orchids don't have many popular names. Local people on our island  call all types of the genus Orchis  kaćuni and  all types of genus Ophrys  are called bees or little chicken. The island of Čiovo is a typical Adriatic and  Mediterranean island with the habitats made by long term Mediterranean rural farming which is rapidly disappearing . For its size, Čiovo has an amazing diversity of wild orchids.There are not holm oak forests on Čiovo or high macchia any more, only here and there. In those successions of the Čiovo flora, orchids still find enough space for their survival but are threatened  mostly by urbanization of the island as well as the usage of pesticides in farming. According to the present results of the field work, there are three genuses of orchids on Čiovo with 14 species. This number isn't final because the species on one locality can be common and on the other one may be very rare.

                   Čiovo, May 3, 2004

                   Čiovo, April 18, 2003

                Čiovo, May 3, 2004

                   Čiovo, April 23, 2004

               Čiovo, April 18, 2003

               Čiovo, March 3, 2004

                Čiovo, April 24, 2004

                   Čiovo, April, 24, 2004

                   Čiovo, May 3, 2004

                  Čiovo, April 23, 2004

                     Čiovo, March 30, 2004

                   Čiovo, April 4, 2004

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