The general aim of conservation is to ensure persi- stence of biodiversity value. Given certain measures (financial, logistic, etc.) the specific goal must be to maximize the amount of biodiversity value to be secured by these means. Several area selection met- hods are available for such purpose, and they repres- ent very different conservation philosophies (Williams et al. 1996; Humphries 2006). Two funda- mentally different approaches exist: (1) locating hot- spots of species richness or narrow endemism, and (2) designating conservation areas according to com- plementarity methods.
AbstrAct. Using the "Seidenfaden collection" in Copenhagen as an example, we address the common view that botanical garden collections of orchids are important for conservation. Seidenfaden collected live orchids all over Thailand from 1957 to 1983 and created a traditional collection for taxonomic research, characterized by high taxonomic diversity and low intraspecific variation. Following an extended period of partial neglect, we managed to set up a five-year project aimed at expanding the collection with a continued focus on taxonomic diversity, but widening the geographic scope to tropical Asia. Since its establishment, the collection has contributed significantly to ex situ conservation and to research-based development of powerful tools for improving in situ conservation-related decisions and priorities. The collection has been, and still is, an important basis for taxonomic and floristic research which has enabled treatment of the Orchidaceae in the Thai red-list. However, the primary focus of our project has shifted to micro-propagation, DNA-barcoding and phylogenetic analysis. The close link between collection-based research and conservation is remarkable and probably applicable to plant collections in botanical gardens in general. Thus, if the collections are managed and used properly, they have great potential for contributing to conservation in many different ways.
Dendrobium Sw., one of the largest orchid genera (Wood, 2006), belongs to subtribe Dendrobiinae in tribe Dendrobieae of the large subfamily Epidendroideae. It contains about 1,450 species distributed among 28 sections (Pridgeon et al., 2014), 10 of which are represented in Thailand. Section Dendrobium is relatively large, comprising of approximately 100 species distributed from India in the west to New Guinea and Australia in the southeast and to Japan and Korea in the northeast (Lavarack et al., 2000; Pridgeon et al., 2014). In the latest critical revision of the Thai material, 53 species were accepted in groups currently referred to sect. Dendrobium. Thus, Seidenfaden (1985) accepted 36 species in sect. Dendrobium s.s., nine species in sect. Callista and eight in sect. Breviflores; the two latter infrageneric taxa, however, are now included in sect. Dendrobium (Pridgeon et al., 2014).
New species are often being described soon after their discovery at just a single site -and will appear narrowly endemic until additional populations (if any) are discovered elsewhere. The process of realizing that an initially "apparent endemic" is in reality non-endemic can be delayed if disjunct populations are redundantly described as distinct species -a risk that probably is negatively correlated with the range of morphological variation reported for the initially discovered population(s). Prompted by recent finds of some aberrant Brachycorythis plants in Thailand, we reassessed the morphological variation and distribution status of Brachycorythis peitawuensis T.P.Lin & W.M.Lin. -a species up to now considered endemic to Mt. Peitawu in Taiwan. Comparisons of the Thai material with the protologue and holotype of B. peitawuensis, and with a more recently published account on the Mt. Peitawu population, unequivocally indicated that also the newly collected plants from Thailand belong to this species. To assist future identification of B. peitawuensis, an amended description is provided, based on previously published data from Taiwan and our original observations from Thailand.
How detailed and explicit should information presented in a "new record" account be to make the new record officially acceptable, and what kind of documentation is required? In recent years, this question has come to prominence, for example, due to the increasing rate with which new national taxon records are appearing in popular orchid field guides. The scientifically deficient publication of such "new records" precludes the alleged occurrences in Thailand from becoming formally accepted in the scientific literature-and the species in question from being considered for conservation in Thailand. To demonstrate the problem in detail, we present the case of Dendrobium ruckeri. First, we outline the historical introduction and occurrence of this species in the Thai botanical literature, and then provide a full taxonomic account, in effect demonstrating what we think a proper "new record" account should include. To avoid continued confusion over scientifically deficient new records, we urge non-professional botanists to properly document any new national record, supported by voucher specimens, and to publish their find in collaboration with appropriate professional botanists before including the newly discovered taxon in a field guide, or any other popular publication.
Two new species of Bulbophyllum (Orchidaceae) are described: B. sphenoglossum (sect. Lemniscata) and B. trigonanthum (sect. Reptantia). Both species occur in Thailand.
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