Europe's Rarest Orchid Found On a Volcano In the Azores

Europe's rarest orchid has been rediscovered after researchers spotted the plant on a volcano in the Azores, according to a press statement

The research team was led by independent botanist Prof. Richard Bateman with local botanist Dr. Mónica Moura from the University of the Azores,  and plant morphologist Dr. Paula Rudall

"I immediately [recognized] the flowers as being exceptionally large for an Azorean butterfly-orchid and e-mailed images to Richard Bateman for confirmation that they were new to science," Moura said in the news release.

The species was found  illustrated in a 1844 journal, but was later confused as belonging to a more-common Azorean species. The flower was found by German botanist Karl Hochstetter when he visited six of the nine Azorean islands in 1838.

"Like many evolutionary biologists before me, I decided that an island system would be much simpler and would therefore yield less ambiguous results," lead researcher Professor Bateman told the BBC News

Previous researches on the plant mainly focused on two species of butterfly orchids - short-spurred butterfly-orchid and narrow-lipped butterfly-orchid. However, on surveying the orchid population in the Azores, they were surprised to find a third species of the plant.

"[I] was astonished when our field expeditions revealed the existence of a third -- and exceptionally rare -- species, growing in such a dramatic, primeval landscape," Bateman told the BBC. "I was even more astonished when my subsequent studies in herbaria and libraries showed that this exceptionally rare orchid, found only on one mountain-top on a single Azorean island, had in fact been found by the very first serious botanist to visit the Azores, in 1838."

The research team used a combination of field research and laboratory work to analyze the rediscovered butterfly orchid and found they colonized the Azores from the Mediterranean as opposed to North America.

According to researchers, this plant is extremely vulnerable to dairy farming and other developments and needs to be protected or it may face extinction.

"This remarkable species languished unrecognized for 173 years," Bateman said in a statement. "It's rediscovery and recognition beautifully illustrate the value of integrating field-based and laboratory-based approaches to generate a modern monograph. This methodology both demonstrates that the species is genuine and allows us to make informed recommendations for its future conservation."