Hochstetter's Butterfly-orchid, Europe's Rarest Orchid, Found in the Azores

A research team of botanists have discovered Narrow-lipped Butterfly-orchid (P. micrantha) which was last seen in 1844. This species of orchids was found in the highest volcanic ridge on the central island of São Jorge in the Azores islands.

Previously, there were only two species of orchids known to inhabit the Azores and the discovery of this third butterfly orchid, which was documented by German botanist Karl Hochstetter 173 years ago and never seen again, urgently requires conservation recognition.

The Hochstetter's Butterfly-orchid is threatened by habitat destruction and invasive alien plants.

The Azores is made up of nine volcanic islands in the middle of the northern hemisphere of the Atlantic Ocean. It is situated west of Portugal (around 1,360 kilometers or 850 miles). It is also 1,510 kilometers (940 miles) northwest of Morocco, and about 1,925 km (1,196 mi) southeast of Newfoundland.

The islands were formed through volcanic and seismic activity around 8 million years ago during the Neogene period.

Each of the nine islands have unique and distinct geomorphological characteristics which sets it apart from each other; ranging from Corvo which is a crater formed from a major Plinian eruption to the almost circular Terceira which has one of the largest craters in the region. The largest island is São Miguel which has many large craters and fields of spatter cones.

Development of Language Influenced By Geographical Elevation

A study reveals that the development of a language is influenced not just by the environment but also of geological elevation. The study notes a trend in language with ejective consonants (sounds produced with a burst of air) being predominant in regions of high elevation.

There are about 6,000 and 7,000 languages currently used in the world today. These can be grouped by common ancestry into language families. There are hundreds of language families but the predominant language families are:

• Indo-European languages - These are languages that include English, Spanish, Russian, and Hindustani (Hindi/Urdu). 46% of the world's population speak languages under this family.
• Sino-Tibetan languages - 21% of the world's population speak this language which includes East Asian language,Mandarin Chinese, and Cantonese
• Niger-Congo languages - Cover African language such as Swahili, Shona, and Yoruba. 6.4% of the world's population speak this language.
• Afroasiatic languages - Include the Arabic, Hebrew language, and the languages of the Sahara region, such as the Berber languages and Hausa.
• Austronesian languages - spoken by 5.9% of the population covers the area from Madagascar to Oceania and includes Malagasy, Māori, Samoan, and many of the indigenous languages of Indonesia and Taiwan.

Plot of the locations of the languages in the sample. Dark circles represent languages with ejectives, clear circles represent those without ejectives. Clusters of languages with ejectives are highlighted with white rectangles. For illustrative purposes only. Inset: Lat-long plot of polygons exceeding 1500 m in elevation. Adapted from Figure 4 in [8]. The six major inhabitable areas of high elevation are highlighted via ellipses: (1) North American cordillera (2) Andes (3) Southern African plateau (4) East African rift (5) Caucasus and Javakheti plateau (6) Tibetan plateau and adjacent regions.
Credit: Caleb Everett, associate professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Science at the University of Miami