Orchidarc is a UK-registered conservation NGO working in the cloud forests of Mexico. We protect wild orchid populations through field research, habitat restoration, IUCN Red List assessment — and the documentary films we make to bring those forests to the world.
Our first formal taxonomic contribution: a hybrid genus that emerges where the cloud forests of central Mexico meet two ancient lineages.
The parent genera are Nidema (nest) and Dinema (crown). The result is Dinedema — the nest-crown — the first new orchid taxon described and published by Orchidarc, endemic to the Mexican cloud forest belt.
Read the paperOrchidarc's films treat orchids as protagonists, not props. Filmed in the cloud forests of Veracruz and Oaxaca, in close partnership with the communities that have lived alongside them for centuries.
The sacred orchids of Mexico — Laelia anceps on the altars of the Day of the Dead, the cloud forests where it still grows wild, and the people who have woven it into a thousand years of ceremony.
Best Feature Environmental Documentary, FICAA Mexico City, 2025
Spring in Mexico is the warmest, driest season — and it brings forth unimaginable beauty. A montage-style portrait of the orchids that bloom when the forest is at its thirstiest.
Following the discovery of the largest known Cypripedium population in Mesoamerica, we are racing against habitat loss and illegal collection to ensure its survival. Targeted surveys, in-situ protection and species reintroduction are underway across the Cofre de Perote cloud forest belt.
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From the showy and fragrant to the cryptic and miniature — selected entries from the orchids we monitor, propagate and assess for the IUCN Red List.
Mexico's most iconic orchid — the lily of the altars. Flowers every November on the cliffs and oak branches of the eastern cordilleras, just in time for the Day of the Dead.
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Pendant inflorescences cascade from cloud-forest branches. Heavily pressured by illegal collection — one of the flagship species of our long-term monitoring programme.
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A Central American icon. Despite formal endangered status, this species thrives within our reserve — a quiet conservation success.
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The pendant-leaf giant — specimens in the canopy can reach over a metre long. Night-scented, moth-pollinated, and increasingly rare in accessible forest.
Read profileAn automated habitat-replication system for orchid conservation — built in-house to solve one of the hardest problems in the field.
Most laboratory-grown orchid seedlings die during deflasking — the transition from sterile in-vitro culture to open air. The RAR Climate Replicator is our response: a modular automated greenhouse that reproduces the specific temperature, humidity, airflow and light cycles of the habitats these orchids came from.
It lets us acclimatize vulnerable seedlings under conditions they can actually survive, and gives us a controlled testbed for studying microhabitat requirements in species we can't risk experimenting on in the wild.
See the researchOrchidarc sits at the intersection of field biology, conservation practice and documentary cinema — three disciplines that, in our work, refuse to be separated.
Founded in 2022 and registered with the UK Charity Commission, Orchidarc operates primarily in Veracruz and Oaxaca, with research collaborations in the United Kingdom, Japan, Ecuador and Costa Rica.
We are a small team — and that's intentional. Every project we take on is led directly by the people doing the field work, the science, and the storytelling.
Taxonomy, IUCN Red List assessment, orchid bioadhesives, and the RAR Climate Replicator for habitat simulation.
Reserve management, symbiotic propagation, and reintroduction of threatened species into protected cloud forest sites.
Long-form films that bring the cloud forest to international audiences — and the funding it needs back home.
Three concrete ways to support the wild orchids of Mexico — choose the one that fits.
Occasional letters from the cloud forest — new species accounts, film releases, expedition reports. No spam, ever.