Endangered African Orchids because they are FOOD!!
 

I found an interesting, however relatively old news article on the net which talks about how terrestrial orchids in Africa are endangered. They are close to extinction becuase of illegal trade, but this time the trade is for human consumption! Apparently these orchids have tubers, like potatoes, and are very much in demand by the public. I guess they must be tasty.
Since all orchids are protected under CITES, the trade of these orchids is illegal but continues between Tanzania and Zambia. The tubers are boiled and eaten as a delicasy called "chikanda" or "kinaka". This delicasy may be endangering 85 species or orchids with trade estimated to be 2.2 million tubers per year.
I got all this info from the following website, please visit to learn some more. Thanks, hope you all enjoyed this one.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?art...82809EC588ED9F

Here is another similar article at the WCS website.
http://www.wcs.org/353624/194458

Hey tin, thanks for the lead,
how sad for the orchids, and the folks who don't have lot of culinary options. Botanical Poaching?

Chikanda
 

In the interest of the OrchidBoard community, I've actually eaten the stuff! I enjoyed it as much as anyone else who had a cold, raw peppered steak served up for breakfast:_( But I struggled through my portion religiously.

But therein lies the reason for its appeal to the Zambians. Most of them are very poor and cannot afford to eat meat. So Chikanda was eaten as a cheap meat substitute. Unfortunately, the trend has caught on, and both, the rich and poor enjoy the stuff.

Viewed in context, these orchids are just some of the tubers that the people in Africa dig up in the true tradition of the hunter-gatherer.

Weng

Thanks for the article tin. Poor orchids :(

I have mixed reactions to this. There are orchids that have no commercial value other than esthetics and there are those (vanila, for one) that have commercial value. In this case the plant has food value. What if I joined an anti-pototoe league based upon my belief that the potatoe was endangered? Just wondering?

orchid tubers as food in africa.
 

Not only ground orchid tubers but also that ceropegias(asclepediaecae) geophytic euphorbias are eaten in many part of tropical areas of India. This is certainly not because of food shortage but they constitute seasonal delicasies like mushrooms and bamboo shoots in rainy season. I haseen huge swathes of ground orchids in the slopes of hills that you cannot wak=lk without trampling scores of them. Like octopus eggs these gound orchids brees in porgious manner. No fears, god has been generous when throwing manna to the ground for men to feast ungrdgingly.

True, and there are many plants and animals that exist ONLY in captivity (thanks to that, to be sure). Habitats are changing both for the negative and positive daily (depends on your point of view). For instance, the Sharp-Tailed Grouse, which inhabits very large openings, such as when large scaled clear-cutting of forests has occured, dwindles and leaves the picture as areas are re-forested. There are always trade-offs when it comes to ecosystems and the plants and animals that typically occupy these ecosystems.

But only Norway Maple trees :evil: They are the evil twins of Dendros except they just keep sending out billions of seeds (twice a year)! And let's not forget the grackels (blackbirds).

Tindo, Are the africans working to re-cultivate these orchids as a viable, renewable resource? :scratchhead:

Thank goodness, the predatory big cat population of Africa still protects vast tracks of such endangered plants in their habitat. When time is opportune, these may bounce back like the bald eagles of U.S.

Hi

We had that tradition in Europe as well, perhaps with different end products. Now it is prohibited!

In turkey they have a similar culture.

Salep - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I do not think it is serious if it can be contained in the local population, the problem is when it becomes a profitable market, without rules. Unfortunately, it seems to be the case in Africa.

Tindo - you need to get out of the 'city'!
Man surely accelerates the natural cycle of development and extinction of wild species. Of the 36 species of wild orchid on Long Island, only 28 have survived. It is unfortunate that our open spaces are being swallowed up by land developers. There are many here that are fighting against the urban spread and have halted it for now. But eventually, politics seems to win out :_(

Here's an interesting read on page 24
http://www.orchidconservation.org/os...t/OCN04-En.pdf

We should applaud the Tanzanian government's protection of these orchids on the Kitulo Plateau.

Weng

I only joined the group long after the original posting, but here in South Africa orchid tubers are not used for food but for muti (traditional medicines). You can go to the muti markets and see orchids for sale to be used as muti. Ansellia africana is a favourite (know in Zulu as imfe nkawu or the sugarcane of the monkeys because the canes resemble sugarcane and it grows in trees where monkeys gather) as well as Eulophias and Polystachyas. Some Disa tubers are also used but they are hard to recognise as such when lying dried out in a bundle. Some of the mutis are used as charms to ward off evil. One that always raises a laugh when mentioned at a meeting is Habenaria dives which is known as the death orchid because the Zulu name means it dies before the grass and it is used to poison (not sure if it works - my wife will not let me growin case!) a person who will die before the grass like the orchid.