Rare endangered orchid surviving after reintroductionBy Yang Yuan-ting and Esme Yeh / Staff reporter, with staff writerCritically endangered orchids reintroduced to the wild have achieved a more than 70 percent survival rate over the past two years, the Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute (TBRI) said yesterday. Dendrobium linawianum — included in the institute’s Red List of Vascular Plants of Taiwan as critically endangered, as its wild population has shrunk to fewer than 200 plants — is a rarely seen indigenous orchid considered to be a valuable herb in traditional Chinese medicine. A Dendrobium linawianum orchid is pictured in an undated photograph. However, only five wild sightings have been recorded of the orchid over the past century, which were limited to New Taipei City and Miaoli County, it said. The plant’s population in the county is presumed to have disappeared, as it has been many years since the last sighting was reported in the region, the institute said.

Source: Taipei Times March 02, 2026 17:12 UTC