Hundreds of natural orchid grow in Meratus Orchid Garden

Banjarmasin, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - Meratus Orchid Garden in Manjai Hill Valley, Mandiangin, Banjar District, South Kalimantan, has a collection of hundreds of species of natural orchids that are arranged to grow naturally.

"All of these orchids are planted on tree trunks that grow in the valley forest of Manjai Hill to make them look natural and beautiful," said the Meratus orchid conservation activist Ferry F. Hoesain here on Wednesday.

Here in the garden, the clumps of giant orchid (Grammatophyllum speciosum) attached to tree trunks. Very large in size with a number of clumps of 30.

The giant orchid has become an icon of Meratus Orchid Garden. There are also black orchid (coelogyne pandurata), vanda orchids (vanda dearei), moon orchids (phalaenopsis amabilis) and many other typical Meratus bulbophyllum orchids.

To replant orchids in nature, Ferry said, it also involved students of Lambung Mangkurat University (ULM) and the community as an effort to socialize and educate them about the conservation of Meratus orchids, whose existence is increasingly threatened with extinction.

Ferry emphasized that Meratus Orchid Garden in Manjai Hill is open to the general public who care about orchid species, including those who wish to donate their collection to be returned to the forest.

"Later this place will not only serve as a conservation area for Meratus typical orchid but also a place of research for orchid researchers as well as nature tourism," he said.

Ferry, who is also the founder of the Center for Study and Conservation of Indonesia Biodiversity (Biodiversitas Indonesia) acknowledged that the existance of the Meratus mountain tropical forest species orchid or commonly known as Meratus orchid in South Kalimantan is increasingly concerning due to forest degradation by land use conversion and natural orchid encroachment.

He hopes that the Meratus forest typical orchid, which is famous for its beauty and exoticism, can be maintained and preserved so as not to be extinct.

"Not only in nature, we also do orchid planting movement in the green open space of the ULM campus in Banjarmasin. Hundreds of Meratus forest typical orchid were planted by Biology students of the FKIP (the Faculty of Teaching Education) together with the orchid-loving community in South Kalimantan," said Ferry who also the founder and supervisor of Meratus Orchid Indonesia Foundation.(YAMI).