[joyful, energetic music] [the lector reads the title]
THE LIFE OF THE FOREST. ORCHIDS [joyful music] Orchids...
who does not know them or has not come across
them at least once? [joyful music] Probably each of us has or has had on the windowsill of our flat or house a popular, especially in recent years, 'orchid'. [joyful music] This is usually a specimen from the botanical
genus Phalenopsis, commonly known as a moth orchid, or from the genus
Cattleya or Dendrobium. [calm music] We are offered thousands
of hybrids or varieties of orchid
species with extremely showy,
long-lasting flowers. [joyful music] The market for
ornamental orchids is worth millions of dollars a year and continues to grow. [joyful music] Not everyone knows, that the popular
'vanilla', used in cooking is also a species
of liana orchid from Central and South America, namely the flat-leaved vanilla, the fruit of which – pod-like sacs
– are widely used in households as a spice – aroma. [calm music, birds singing] In Turkey and the Balkans, on the other hand, a drink was traditionally made from the powdered tubers
of the early-purple orchid called salep, which was consumed with various additives, especially in winter. It has a warming
effect and was once believed to have
aphrodisiac properties. [calm music, birds singing] There are, of course, many more uses for plants from
the orchid family. [calm music, nature voices] Orchidaceae, commonly called the orchid family, is one of the most numerous families on Earth. [calm music] It includes more than 25,000 documented species and it
is estimated that there may be up to 40,000 species. [calm music] The vast majority of species live in intertropical zones, mainly tropical Asia and South America. Most are found in tropical mountain cloud forests. [calm music] The further away
from the tropics, the number of species
decreases rapidly. [calm music] Orchidaceae, as
these plants should properly be called,
are cosmopolitan. [calm music] They are found on all continents except Antarctica. [calm music] The word orchid literally means one of the 880 genera
of the orchid family, namely the genus Orchis. [calm music] For most of us inhabitants
of the moderate zone, orchids are associated
almost exclusively with cultivated, colourful varieties or hybrids,
and above all with exotic, tropical plants
from far-away lands. However, not everyone knows that in our Polish forest, on our Polish meadows and in our country, we also have representatives
of the orchid family, that is around 50 species, including hybrids. In the majority of cases, these are not as magnificent and impressive plants as in tropical countries. As far as our
domestic orchid species are concerned, we
also have species with magnificent,
spectacular, quite large flowers, such as the
lady’s-slipper orchid, which is probably the most beautiful of our Polish
orchids, but there are also other botanical
genera, such as the marsh orchid or the
genus Platanthera. [joyful music] Most species, due to
the fact that they live in tropical and
subtropical zones, live directly on the trunks,
branches and leaves of trees and shrubs, without producing roots typical of other
vascular plants. [calm music] They belong to a life
form called epiphytes. [calm music] They have numerous aerial roots, covered with silvery
fuzz called velamen, which has the task of capturing and temporarily storing water contained in the air. [calm music] Some of the roots
contain chlorophyll, a green pigment and can aid photosynthesis. [calm music] It is important to remember that in evergreen rainforests, it is very dark under the canopy of the trees. Aerial roots are accompanied by
adventitious roots, which attach
the plant to the ground. [calm music] All our orchid species are terrestrial species. They produce
specially modified roots and enter into mycorrhizal associations with fungi, which is sometimes an obligatory association for
the survival of certain species, such as
non-photosynthetic ones that do not produce chlorophyll. [calm music] All of our native orchids are terrestrial species and their
roots usually form storage organs such as tubers
of various shapes. [calm music] The storage organ here is also a specially modified underground shoot
in the form of a rhizome. [calm, relaxing music] Leaves of orchids have a rather simple structure,
most often they are undivided, oblong or egg-shaped with parallel veins,
and spathouse at base. [calm music] In some species, they are perennial and long-lasting,
such as the only evergreen orchid found in the coniferous
forests of Poland – the creeping lady’s-tresses. [calm music] This species is still
relatively common in the north and
north-east of Poland, while in other parts
of our country it is one of the rarest
elements of the flora. [calm music] What is interesting,
this plant is most closely related to the autumn lady’s-tresses. It is a very similar plant in terms of flowers, but it inhabits completely different habitats. It can be found in
extensively grazed grasslands, mainly
in the mountains. [relaxing music] The creeping lady’s-tresses gets its Polish name from the fact that its flowers on
the inflorescence usually point to one side, as you can clearly see here. [calm music] However, there are also some species that produce
virtually no leaves. [calm music] The leaves then take the form of scales on the shoot,
lacking chlorophyll, as it happens in the case of our ghost orchids or
bird’s-nest orchids. [joyful music] It is worth saying
here that these species do not carry out
photosynthesis at all, and we call them non-photosynthetic orchids. [joyful music] Orchids can range in size
from a few millimetres to several-metre-high creepers such as vanilla. [joyful music, birds singing] One of the most characteristic features of orchids is the structure flowers and their elements. [joyful music] Flowers or
inflorescences have many different shapes,
colours, forms and sizes. [joyful music] However, flowers with dorsiventral
symmetry predominate. [bird voices] The flower structure
is the result of the adaptation of most species to
pollination by insects, less frequently by
higher vertebrate organisms such as hummingbirds. [music] Examples of adaptations
for pollination include the special
structure of the flower. Such an expression here is the developed labellum, which can have various patterns invisible to the human eye that are a kind of landing strips for various insects, mostly Hymenoptera. [music, birds singing] The flowers are usually hermaphroditic, but in some orchids self-pollination is possible and even the phenomenon of
cleistogamy occurs – the ability to
pollinate with their own pollen before the flowers open. [music, birds singing] Our native ghost orchids can, for example, not open their flowers at all and bloom underground! [music, birds singing] The flowers of orchids are not differentiated into a calyx and a corolla as in other flowering plants but have perianth leaves like the protruding, reddish-brown ones of our native lady’s-slipper orchid. [music, birds singing] One of them forms a so-called labellum, which sometimes has spectacular colouration and shape. In the lady’s slipper, it resembles an elongated yellow balloon
with a narrow entrance to its interior. [music, birds singing] The surface of the labellum often shows
characteristic patterns which are a distinguishing mark for pollinating insects. [music, birds singing] Usually there is a so-called gynostemium, formed
by the fusion of the stamens with the pistil style
and its stigmas. [music, birds singing] It is usually hidden
inside the flower and not very visible,
which in many orchidaceae meant
that they had to develop specific ways to be
pollinated by insects. [music, birds singing] The flowers of the lady’s slipper
are trap-like. The edges of the labellum are heavily waxed and curled, making it easy for insects that sit on them to fall inside. To leave the trap, the insect must
follow a special 'trail'. hese are rows of small
hairs and red spots located along the veins inside the labellum. [music, birds singing] When climbing,
the insect first encounters a large stigma, which it rubs against. In this way it leaves on it the pollinium
from other specimens it has previously visited. As it climbs higher,
it rubs against the waxy pollen mass,
'collecting' new genetic material with which
it can pollinate the next representative
of the same species. This sequence of how the insects leave the trap set by the lady’s slipper orchid protects it from self-pollination. [joyful music] Slightly different
adaptations have been developed by species
of the genus Ophrys. [joyful music] Their labellum, in terms of shape and often
also colour and smell, resembles the abdomen of the female in
certain insect species. [joyful music] During the copulation attempt, pollination
of the Ophrys occurs – the insect usually hits its head on the
pollinium and stigma. [joyful music] In the Polish flora until recently only one species of
Ophrys was known – the fly orchid. In recent years, however, several localities of the second representative of this genus have been
discovered in our country – the bee orchid. It is the latest to bloom and at the same time produces the largest flowers of all European Ophrys. [calm music] In most orchids there is a phenomenon of resupination, i.e. a twisting of the ovary or the short peduncle,
usually by 180 degrees. [calm music] As a result, the labellum occupies a position in the
lower part of the flower under the gynostemium, making it an ideal 'landing
site' for pollinators. [calm music] These are mostly hymenopterous
flies, ants, crickets, butterflies and beetles, and sometimes even
birds, bats or frogs. This is an
evolutionary adaptation of orchidaceae to pollination by different animals. [calm music] Another is the ability of insects to
carry not individual pollen grains, but a whole mass of them, which is glued together to form a pollinium. This in turn easily sticks to the insect by means of a sticky pedicel. [joyful music, birds singing] The fruit of orchids are usually elongated sacs which,
when dry, burst open and release microscopic seeds from within – some of the
smallest in the world. [joyful music, birds singing] They sometimes reach a mass of several millionths of a gram. For this reason,
this entire systematic group used to be
called Microspermae – or small-seeded plants. [joyful music, birds singing] Plants produce seeds
in huge numbers, some species even
several hundred thousand, in which they are similar to fungi and their spores. [joyful music, birds singing] The seeds are devoid of any nutrients and contain
only the beginnings of plant embryos consisting of a few or a dozen or so cells. [birds singing] Most orchid species develop in symbiosis with fungi,
forming mycorrhizae. [birds singing] Seeds have
a very short lifespan, from a few to
several dozen hours. So if they do not find a suitable fungal partner in
this time, they die. [music, bird voices] If they succeed in
doing so, however, the fungal hyphae
penetrate the seed cells. [music, bird voices] There are also species which are already entwined with mycorrhizal fungal hyphae during flowering. [joyful music, birds singing] The seed, falling to the surface, already has a fungal partner in it. [joyful music, birds singing] Usually after two to five years, but sometimes
even after 10 years, the first green leaves of the juvenile stage
begin to appear, [joyful music, birds singing] and in the following years they are already replaced by definitive leaves – typical leaves. [joyful music, birds singing] They are capable of assimilation and usually at this point the plant becomes independent of the mycorrhizal fungus. [joyful music, birds singing] However, there are some species in our orchid flora that remain in a mycorrhizal
association with the fungus all their lives, such as the bird’s-nest
orchid, the ghost orchid and the early coralroot. [joyful music, birds singing] Life and development of orchids without the right fungi would be impossible. [joyful music, birds singing] We are in the Rospuda Valley, in the western part
of the Augustów Forest. Admittedly, it is relatively early, but we were greeted here
by flocks of botflies. We are in this place because we wanted to see the population of several species of the orchid family which occur here, and one of them is the marsh
helleborine – Epipactis palustris. It is still a relatively common representative of the orchid family in north-eastern Poland, while in the Rospuda Valley basin, on the mosslands above
the Rospuda Valley, it has one of the most numerous national populations, certainly comprising many thousands of specimens. [joyful music] Polish orchids can be found in a variety of habitats, from various types of peat
bogs, through wet and fresh meadows,
dry grasslands, various types
of forest ecosystems, where there is a whole range of species depending
on the plant community, to foothills
and mountain pastures. [joyful music] The common spotted
orchid grows in shady, fertile and moist forests, along water banks in wet areas. [joyful music, birds singing] This species has beautiful large inflorescences with variable flower colours. [bird voices] It often forms hybrids with other orchid species. [joyful music] It is one of the
few native orchids to have
nectar-producing flowers. [joyful music, birds singing] Its leaves are decorated with numerous dark spots. [joyful music, birds singing] Some orchid species are attached to
a single habitat type, others have a wide
ecological amplitude and can inhabit
diverse ecosystems. All orchids are under species protection in Poland. [music] Most of them are vanishing, receding and rare plants. [calm music] That is why they are included in the Polish Red Book of Plants and the Polish Red List of Ferns and Flowering Plants. [bird voices] Two orchid species, the lady’s slipper orchid and the fen orchid, are included in Annex II of the EU Habitats Directive, whose protection
requires designation of Special Areas of Conservation. [calm music, birds singing] The Rospuda Valley is a refuge for over twenty, i.e. more than half,
of the Polish representatives
of the Orchidaceae family, commonly called orchids, found in our country. [calm music] Fen orchid, called
Liparis Loeselii in Latin, is a very small orchid, which is associated exclusively with peat bogs, mainly low, alkaline bogs, and less frequently with transitional bogs in very well-watered areas. Unfortunately, due to the fact that we are strongly transforming the environment in which we live, more than half of the national sites of this very rare species have disappeared in the last 100 years. The situation is little better, or rather worse, in most neighbouring countries both east, south and west of our borders. Nevertheless, here in the
Rospuda Valley there is one of the two
or three most numerous national populations of this species. Like most of the orchidaceae,
such a fen orchid, its populations are characterised by very large fluctuations in numbers every year. This is normal in this family. However, on the basis of many years of research, it is estimated that this population numbers at least five, in some years even over twenty thousand specimens. [calm music] This species is very small in size, but nevertheless produces small but very interestingly shaped flowers during
the flowering period. [joyful music, birds singing] However, some orchid species, due to their development and environmental conditions, may only appear in the form of inflorescence
shoots once every few years, such as the ghost orchid, the bird’s-nest orchid, the
early coralroot and hence there is often a misconception that the species is
extinct in a given area. [joyful music, birds singing] The broad-leaved marsh orchid is a species which until recently was one of the most common orchids in our country. Unfortunately, as a result of many environmental changes, its populations are steadily shrinking. It is quite a large plant, rowing on wet meadows, the edges of peat bogs
and the edges of wet forests. It willingly forms interspecific hybrids with various flower colours. There are also albino forms. The leaves are large and broad with numerous dark spots, [music] Hence another Polish
name for the plant – stoplamek szerokolistny. [calm music] Here grows the last of the musk orchids in the
territory of Poland. This is a species of orchid, which historically was known from about twenty localities within present-day Poland, but as a result
of land reclamation has disappeared from all of them. The circumstances in which it died out in the last known locality in the Wizna marsh in the first half of the 1960s, when the government of the People’s
Republic of Poland planned to make the vast marshes in the Wizna area more productive,
are significant. A group of scientists undertook research during which they demonstrated the very high natural value of the area, including the presence of the musk orchid flowers, and despite the fact that there was censorship they managed to publish an article in which it was indicated that if this land reclamation,
this up-grading, was carried out, the species would probably disappear within
ten or fifteen years. As it turned out, the scientists were
only partly right, because after these
land reclamation measures had been
carried out, the musk orchid and other rare
species disappeared from the site within three or four years.
Today we have fields of nettles there. [calm music] Musk orchids have been known in the Rospuda
Valley since 1987. The population is stable, with several hundred
specimens every year. The species has excellent conditions for development here as the mosslands
of the Rospuda Valley have an undisturbed hydrological system. The area is perfectly
watered all the time. Along with it there are, among others, the fen orchid, the chalk fragrant orchid, the marsh helleborine, the early marsh-orchid – subspecies ochroleuca. [music] These areas are characterised by very high natural values. It is probably the last such large river valley
with preserved mosslands, i.e. such alkaline, flowing peat bogs in Europe. [calm music] The greatest threats to our orchids include, above all, the disappearance
of the habitats that these beautiful
plants prefer. [calm music] Species living in peat bogs and hydrogenic
habitats, that is, those dependent on a high level of flowing or ground water, are disappearing as
a result of the drying of these ecosystems
and the encroachment of succession of competitively strong, expansive plant
species on peat bogs. [a bird sound] This process is
certainly influenced by the current climate changes – lack of snowy winters and adequate annual
precipitation as well as high temperature,
increased evaporation and transpiration of plants. [calm music] We are in the northern part of the Suwałki Region in the area
of Szelment lakes. We have a raised bog
around us and on its periphery there is
a Hammarbya paludosa. Hammarbya paludosa is most often found in raised bogs
and transitional bogs. It may be worth
pointing out that raised bogs are bogs which
are fed by rainwater. Transitional bogs are fed by rainwater and groundwater, and low bogs,
such as those home to the fen orchid, are fed
by groundwater. This has a reflection on the pH of the substrate, and it is on raised bogs, where Hammarbya
grows, the substrate is usually acidic, rarely
approaching neutral. [calm music] This species is
one of the smallest members of the
orchid family in Poland, but it is also highly threatened with extinction. Over the last few decades, more than half of the historically
known stands of the Hammarbya
paludosa have been lost in Poland, and the reason
for this was most often drainage, which led to a change in
hydrological conditions in the peat bog or started the process of peat decay, which in turn enables the development of strong, expansive, competitive species of perennial plants, shrubs and trees, which overshadowed this very small species. [music] For the Hammarbya paludosa to persist where it
still occurs today, hydrological conditions must be maintained and active protection measures must be implemented in disturbed areas. This will simply mean filling in existing drainage ditches. This measure will not
always be sufficient, because the process of decay, or in other words
mineralisation of peat, may be so advanced
that the availability of nutrients nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus will be so high that strong competitive vegetation will develop anyway, despite the improvement of hydrological conditions. In such a situation, apart from not
filling up the ditches, it is also necessary to implement active protection measures, connected
with cutting down, removing bushes,
trees and sometimes even mowing the peat bogs. Meadow and grassland species decline as a result of lack of extensive grassland use, namely cattle grazing. [music] Some forest species,
on the other hand, may decline due
to a change in light conditions in the forest through increased shading
of the forest floor. One of the approximately 50 species of orchids
we have in Poland is the autumn lady’s-tresses. This species blooms the latest of our native orchid species, sometimes it can bloom even to the beginning of October. [calm music] This species is
inconspicuous, it is small, the whole inflorescence shoot is maximum 30 cm. [calm music] The species can
be said to be on the verge of extinction
at the moment, and I will risk
such a statement, there are a dozen
or so localities in Poland. [calm music] Before the Second World War, there were around 130 sites of the autumn lady’s-tresses in present-day Poland, and after the Second World War, this number fell steadily as a result of changes in agriculture, mainly the abandonment of
extensive grazing. [the sound of cow bells] It was last seen in
Poland in the 1970s. It was not until 1999
that it was again found in the area
of Cieszyn Foothills. Since then, about twenty-five localities of this
species have been found, among which at least eight should be considered extinct, because they have been ploughed or otherwise
mechanically destroyed. [calm music] Invasions of alien species, such as the small-flowered touch-me-not and the wild black cherry in various
forest ecosystems. [joyful music, birds singing] As well as intensive, large-scale agriculture and industry, which release mainly
nitrogen compounds into the environment,
result in significant fertilisation of habitats and excessive growth of biomass, do not
help the orchids either. [joyful music] Eggleaf twayblade occurs in oak-hornbeam forests and wet forests
as well as in other habitats. [joyful music] The plant is characterised by two large, egg-shaped leaves. [joyful music] Tiny, yellowish green
flowers are loosely placed on the inflorescence,
which often reaches 60 cm in height. There can be
as many as 100 of them. [joyful music] The labellum is
oblong, deeply incised and pointing downwards. The flowers contain nectar and are pollinated
mainly by hymenoptera. [joyful music] However, the Polish State Forests implement many projects for the protection of orchids and their habitats,
and they also carry out forest management in such a way as to be orchid-friendly
in the areas where they are known to occur. [calm music, bird voices] For example,
the lowland and mountain small retention projects result in water retention in forest
and open ecosystems, which is beneficial for orchids. [joyful music, birds singing] In Natura 2000 areas,
active measures are also taken not only
in forest ecosystems, but also in open ecosystems, such as various
types of peat bogs, meadows and grasslands. [calm music] Orchids are not a very numerous group
of plants in Poland, they constitute less than 2% of the entire vascular
flora of flower plants. However, even though some species have inconspicuous inflorescences, they are hardly visible, hard to find in the field, so it is worth
exploring our meadows and forests in search
of our domestic orchids. And when we find such an orchid, such a specimen, let’s lean over it, let’s look closely at the structure of the flower, how complicated it is, and at the same time we will see its beauty and it will turn out that in fact they do not differ from those offered to us on the market. Maybe our native orchids do not have such impressive sizes and spectacular flowers as their tropical cousins, but they are still an element of exoticism in our
forests and meadows, and due to their
specific development and structure they undoubtedly constitute one of
the most interesting groups of plants in Poland. [joyful music]
