Orchids and their biodiversity in Caspian province (a descriptive and pictorial look to Orchids)

Hyrcanian province or Caspian zone with its unique ecological characteristics is an important part of plantbiodiversity of Iran of these, the Orchids are one the most important plants for the flora of Iran. Here, basedon collecting of flora of Mazandaran province and other related projects, some of Orchid species wereselected and noticed for more studies. In this regard and by doing field studies on main sites over 5 years,many of Orchid taxa were collected and the distribution range and main sites were identified. Ecological traitsof the species and also their sites were noted and evaluated, in addition to description of orchid species,some botanical characteristics were presented with proper photos. Finally, by resulting the data, Iran’sorchids list was presented and biodiversity values of some of the important orchid species were describedfor the Hyrcanian province. Thus, using these data can help us to reach conservation aims for protectingrare and threatened species.