ORCHIDS AT MACHU PICCHU

Introduction

It is not certain who discovered Machu Picchu, but it was Hiram Bingham who in 1911 made it known to the world. It was in 1981 that an area of approximately 80,000 acres was created as the Machu Picchu Historical Sanctuary. In this way it has been protected for future generations. Most of the Sanctuary is inaccesible to the normal tourist, only those fortunate to hike the Inca Trail, that takes on average four days, can get a glimpse of the majesty of this place.

It is believed that in this Sanctuary exist at least 60 genera of orchids with probably more than 300 species, many of them near extinction, due to habitat destruction by forest fires, that most of the time are caused by local farmers who use this ancient method to clear the land for their cattle, other cause is illegal collecting. Let us see some of them.