Orchids include some of the rarest and most beautiful plants in nature, but their existence in Lombardy is intimately intertwined with agriculture and traditional ways of life throughout the richly diverse geographic landscape of the region. This book charts the spread of orchids alongside traditional agricultural methods and, following the tumultuous changes in human society since industrialisation, the efforts of Lombardy’s parks and individuals to conserve them in the modern world. We see how the survival of these plants actually depends on being rare, and on the plants and other organisms they are surrounded by. Written for members of the public and students of conservation, this book investigates the modern techniques used to conserve these most striking and intriguing of flowers.