Chamorchis alpina and Epipactis helleborine in the Murmansk Region, Russia, and assessments of the orchids in the Region using the IUCN Red List Categories

Authors

• Ilona V. Blinova Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden Institute, Kola Research Centre of Russian Academy of Sciences
• Pertti Uotila Finnish Museum of Natural History (Botany), University of Helsinki

Abstract

The old record of Chamorchis alpina from Rybachiy Peninsula, Murmansk Region has been confirmed and another old locality reported from Pechenga on the basis of two herbarium specimens collected by Jacob Fellman (H). The specimen from Pechenga was wrongly published as Herminium monorchis in Fellman’s Index plantarum 1831. Chamorchis alpina has not been found in the Murmansk Region since more than 180 years, and it is proposed to be treated as regionally extinct (RE) in the Red Data Books dealing with the Region. Epipactis helleborine, recently reported from the District of Kandalaksha, should be added to the regional Red Data Book as a critically endangered (CR) species. Five species relic for polar latitudes – Calypso bulbosa, Cypripedium calceolus, Epipogium aphyllum, Hammarbya paludosa and Malaxis monophyllos – better belong to critically endangered (CR) than endangered (EN) species. Dactylorhiza traunsteineri, known only from two localities, should be moved from vulnerable (VU) to critically endangered (CR). Dactylorhiza incarnata, small populations of which show drastic fluctuations, should be treated as endangered (EN) instead of vulnerable (VU). Coeloglossum viride, Corallorhiza trifida, Gymnadenia conopsea and Listera cordata should be transferred from VU to a group of species in need of monitoring. Leucorchis albida should be included as Vulnerable in the National Red Data Book of Russia. Dactylorhiza fuchsii should belong to the category of Data Deficient (DD).