Abstract
Orchidaceae is a diverse, globally important plant family with high conservation assessment and prioritization requirements. The checklist of Orchidaceae in Mongolia was updated based on herbarium materials, literature, and field observations. Mongolian orchids were revised as comprising 26 taxa belonging to 14 genera with major updates were conducted on Herminium and Epipactis. In particular, H. alaschanicum, previously noted in the Alashan Gobi region, was added to the flora of Mongolia based on literature and type specimens. Epipactis helleborine and E. palustris were excluded from the Mongolian flora owing to the absence of herbarium specimens and wild collection from Mongolia. Assessment of all orchid species at the national level resulted in 1, 4, 7, 11, and 2 species as critically endangered (CR), endangered (EN), vulnerable (VU), near threatened (NT), and data deficient (DD), respectively, according to IUCN criteria. Species richness and conservation gap analyses of 970 georeferenced orchid records based on 0.5° × 0.5° grid cells across 16 phytogeographical regions of Mongolia, showed that four phytogeographical regions, Khangai, Khuvgul, Khentii and Mongolian Dauria, have a high number of orchids. Regrettably, most orchid-rich locations in Mongolia are not fully within protected areas, highlighting the need for protection management updates. Based on herbarium collections, we prepared grid distribution maps of the 26 taxa using 40 × 40 km2 grids. Photographs of 18 taxa taken during fieldwork were included, providing valuable information on species morphology and typical habitat.
Highlights
Orchidaceae is a diverse, globally important plant family with an urgent need for conservation assessment and prioritization [1,2,3]
Data were obtained from three main sources: (i) herbarium collections from ALTB, GFW, HAL, K, LE, MW, NS, NSK, OSBU, TK, UBA and UBU, and the Virtual Guide to the Flora of Mongolia [35]; (ii) literature, and (iii) field survey observations between 2015 and 2020
The updated checklist of Orchidaceae is represented by 26 taxa from 14 genera in Mongolia (Table 2)
Summary
Orchidaceae is a diverse, globally important plant family with an urgent need for conservation assessment and prioritization [1,2,3]. The orchid family comprises approximately 30,300 species and is one of the largest and most widespread families of flowering plants worldwide [4,5]. 600 orchid species listed as threatened on the global database of threatened species according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) [6]. Zizka et al [2] provided an automated conservation assessment of the orchids including 13,910 species, of which 4340 species are possibly threatened worldwide. There are numerous publications on regional assessments of orchid species using IUCN categories and criteria [7,8,9,10]. The lady’s slipper orchid (Cypripedium calceolus L.) is classified of least concern on a global scale [11], whereas as endangered or vulnerable in many European and Asian countries on a national scale [8,9,11,12,13,14]
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