Preserved orchids show pollination has fallen 60% since the 1970s

SYDNEY: (Apr 20) With their dazzling blooms, orchids are among the most famous and collected flowering plants on Earth.

But orchids are not just beautiful and rare. They can also provide clues into the broader health of global ecosystems.

From the outside, ecosystems can look healthy while species reproduction rates are quietly collapsing, due to a decline in the number of bees and other pollinators such as flies and wasps. That’s in part what makes pollination failure so dangerous – and so hard to detect.