Population Dynamics, Reproductive Success, and Seasonal Development of Cypripedium calceolus under Different Growing Conditions as a Response to Weather Factors

Photosynthate transfer from an autotrophic orchid to conspecific heterotrophic protocorms through a common mycorrhizal network

“…For those orchid species that do show aggregated distributions clumped around established adults, our study suggests that carbon transfer via common mycorrhizal networks may be of fundamental importance and thus have a role in orchid conservation and management. Species such as Cypripedium calceolus, which are rare, have very specific Tulasnella mycorrhizal symbionts (Shefferson et al, 2005(Shefferson et al, , 2007 and show strongly clumped distributions of green-leaved young plants (Kirillova & Kirillov, 2021;Rusconi et al, 2023) might benefit from the use of transplanted 'nurse plants' to help facilitate regeneration from seedbut this needs to be tested. Loss of adults as a resource, if important for facilitating mycoheterotrophic seedling germination and development, might explain why over-collecting of some wild orchids like C. calceolus has proved difficult to reverse by reintroductions using plants raised asymbiotically under laboratory conditions (Gargiulo et al, 2021).…”