Page 33 - State of Biodiversity 2019-2020

The following is an extract from an article written by Prof. Craig Peter – Department of Botany, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, who is leading this project.The article was written for Orchids South Africa Vol. 51 (2) yet to be published.
Operation millarii is a two-pronged project to:
1. Reassess the conservation status of R. millarii and search for intermediate populations
2. Raise seedlings from wild seeds of known populations to reintroduce to both wild and nearby urban sites
This project was made possible by ‘project seeding’ funding from the organising committee of the 23rd World Orchid Conference, Taiwan. The release of the funds kicked off the first round of community engagements primarily with the orchid growers and enthusiasts from the greater Durban area.
Operation millarii was enthusiastically adopted by the KZN branch of Wild Orchids of Southern Africa (WOSA) and under the leadership of Jimmy Pauck and has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Durban Botanic Gardens.
We have obtained a seed capsule from a wild population growing in a private garden. With permission of the owner we pollinated the flowers (Jan 2020) and obtained one seed capsule (25 August 2020).This seed capsule has been given to our tissue culture lab. As it came from a private garden and is a red data species, we have a letter of permission from the owner, also lodged at the tissue culture lab, to cover the legal aspect.
Established seedlings of known provenance will be reintroduced to the source population but also in nearby parks and gardens.
Diaphananthe millarii HP.
Rhipidoglossum millarii seed pod.
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