Orchids flourish between the dead

SBet the gray graves of an ancient cemetery in Alduro, England, you will find early purple orchids swinging in the high grass. Although farms and cities have consumed many forest habitats and herbal lands of this type, the human tradition of putting the dead to rest in the land burial land has given this population a place to grow relatively free of human disorders. A similar pair can be found throughout the continent on the Greek island of Crete, where the orchards of the pink butterfly open alongside the marble crosses that define the graves. Orchid species seem to have found protection between graves. They are not alone.

At least 65 different species of flowering plants were accurately determined in the lands of Europe, according to A study published in Global environment and memorization In August. A team of Hungarian scientists has accurately documented the diversity of lizard via 2,079 graves in 13 European countries that extend from Slovakia to Spain.

Many orchids depend on complex relationships with attached insects, soil fungi, and even hosting trees to grow and multiply, which makes them Exceptionally at risk To environmental changes. As a result, it is a type of bell: in the places where they flourish, it is often because the larger local ecosystem is healthy and prosperous.

Many types of orchids are specifically adapted to grow in poor meadows nutrients where they can survive. But these habitats disappear due to the flow of fertilizers from farms and the decline in traditional sheep grazing practices that maintain open herbal lands. The orchards were for decades Decrease Throughout Europe.

The graves are some of the most biological habitats in nearby cities.

The author of the study has become Molnár Attia, the Hungarian plant world, interested in the obsessed relationship between the orchards of fruit and the dead after he visited many Turkish cemeteries in 2013 known among plant lovers as wonderful places to see the orchards of wild fruit. When he returned home, he developed a research project documenting orchids from Turkish graves to the next doctorate. The student, Victor Loki, who said “Yes” immediately. “It was a five -minute.” Loki, who is now a biologist at the Environmental Research Center in Budapest and co -author of the study.

The team’s research soon expanded beyond Türkiye to the rest of Europe. By 2018, Loki and his colleagues visited more than 2,600 cemeteries in Europe and Turkey. Their results contribute to an increasing group of research that indicates that graves around the world are hot points of biological diversity. In fact, the graves are some of the most biological habitats in cities and near them, says Jin Nagy, the main author of the study at Debreen University, Hungary.

The new study is the first ever evaluation of the value of preserving graves on a continental scale. Fifteen percent of the graves included in the survey contained orchids, and the researchers found 44,680 individuals. “The fact that many types of orchids that occur in European cemeteries were a surprise to me,” says Engo Quartic, a vegetarian environment scientist at the University of Technich in Berlin, Germany.

During the five years Loki spent, he spent the graves to roam the individual appearance flowers, and saw a diversity of positions towards allowing scientists to enter graves. In the mountain north of Azerbaijan, “they were very supportive [of our research] “You are doing what you want,” says Loki. They will approach us immediately, and when we answered their questions, they will tell us to leave, he says.

The traditions of different cultures affect whether their graves hosts orchids and other plants. Many religions prohibit construction, agriculture and resource extraction on the causes of burial. But architecture cemetery is also important. On the Mediterranean coast in Spain and France, the orchards of fruit grew in just two of 150 cemetery covered by the survey. Loki says rock soils and local customs dictate that many bodies are located above the ground in the structures, such as stories. He says that these fans of concrete and marble leave a little open soil where the plant can grow.

Researchers believe that some practices of keeping Earth in graves may be more convenient than others, although they did not have enough data to test this idea statistically. In some places, plants and animals lived greatly without annoying the graves. Nagy says that other graves are often cut and treated with pesticides to create a green green garden at the expense of biological diversity.

Loki noted that this type of genetics was more common in Europe than in Türkiye, where “they are somewhat interested in leaving nature alone for religious reasons,” he says. It is fascinated by the lucky overlap in this case between spirituality and preservation. Girls, in any case, sublime.

The leading image: Ondrej Prosiky / Shutterstock

• Mark Diover

  Spread on August 11, 2025

  Mark Digerian is a scientific journalist who specializes in ecology and biological diversity. His work appeared in Mongabay, EOS, Mountain Journal, And many other ports.