Research Canines Are Helping the Garden Find These Rare and Endangered Arizona Orchids

BY GARDEN BLOG | SEP 16, 2022 | HORTICULTURE

Meet Circe and Muon! They are two specially-trained dogs used in ecological research who are helping Desert Botanical Garden, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Smithsonian find rare and endangered orchids growing in southern Arizona.

The research canines are on the hunt for the Canelo Hills ladies’-tresses orchid (Spiranthes delitescens), an endangered plant first described as a new species in 1990 and listed as endangered by 1997.

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