"Europe's Rarest Orchid Rediscovered On 'Lost World' Volcano in the Azores"

[WhiteRabbit]

Europe's rarest orchid rediscovered on 'lost world' volcano in the Azores

[Tindomul]

Thats pretty cool, but it sounded like the orchid was super rare and another population was found in the Azores. Instead, the orchid is super rare because it is found only in the volcanic areas of the Azores (1 Island I presume).
I like how the describes the bio-geography of Platanthera in the Azores, coming from the Mediterranean rather than from North America.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Very exiting.

[ronaldhanko]

That's really cool, Sonya.

[Andrew]

A little bit of further reading:
Bateman RM, Rudall PJ, Moura M. (2013) Systematic revision of Platanthera in the Azorean archipelago: not one but three species, including arguably Europe’s rarest orchid. PeerJ 1:e218

Looks like a lot of reassigning of names.

[Tindomul]

Hi Sonya, is it ok if we move this to the Scientific matters forum?

[ron-in-norcal]

That's pretty fascinating, and it prompted me to look into what the Azores are like. They certainly are beautiful islands, and a very temperate climate!

[TOMMYMIAMI]

Orchid is beautiful, and Azores islands are paradise, soooo loooong ago when I visited them, would love to come back!

[ron-in-norcal]

Yes, I was looking at the climate for one of the islands, and its all-time record high was 88°F, all-time record low was 38°F. Even milder than the weather in San Diego!