Hand pollinating a threatened orchid!? - Saving our Species: Field Notes

Report sightings of the Buttercup Doubletail:
[e-mail]
It’s normal nowadays to use a little outside help finding a suitable partner. While we have Tinder, for our native plants and animals it isn’t that easy.
The buttercup doubletail (Diuris aequalis) is definitely an orchid to swipe right for. Aside from being spectacularly named, this endangered ‘donkey orchid’ has to be one of the most eye-catching native flowers out there, with its vibrant yellow hue and intricate design.
There’s a few reasons to hand-pollinate a plant - in many cases we do it because many plants rely on specific pollinators to do the job for them, and there might not be enough of these pollinators around, particularly after a bushfire. However - in the case of the buttercup doubletail, we did it because we wanted to collect their seed.
Long-term seed storage is crucial for preserving the remaining genetic diversity of our threatened plants, and hand pollinating and seed bagging threatened orchids is a sure-fire way to guarantee we get those precious seeds. Having seed in storage protects the population from ever disappearing for good. Should some unforeseen event wipe the wild population out, we have our backup seeds in storage.
For more information on the Buttercup Doubletail:
www.environmen...
And why we hand pollinate them:
www.environmen...

[@judyholdsworth7096]

Great video.

[@madenaraputra6887]

The wasps are could be pollinated of all orchids