WILD ORCHIDS TRADED IN A TRADITIONAL MARKET IN CHIAPAS, MEXICO

Background: Orchid commercialization is a common practice in Mexican markets, especially in high biodiversity regions. Question / Hypothesis: How many orchid species were sold in the Las Margaritas Market? From where were they extracted? Did their availability (richness) show a temporal variation along of one year? Which was the relation between the showiness of the flowers (size) and their selling price? Studied species: Orchidaceae family. Study site and years of study: Las Margaritas Market, Chiapas, 2014. Methods: We interviewed 15 market-sellers (12 women and three men). We determined all the commercialized species, their place of extraction and the relationship between the showiness of each flower (flower size) and its selling price, through a correlation analysis. Results: Sixty orchid species were registered on sale. Four of these species were under an at-risk category (NOM-059- SEMARNAT-2010): Lycasle skinneri, Laelia superbiens, Cuitlauzina pulchella and Oncidium leucochilum. The highest selling period was December-January, while the lowest was September-October. Most of the orchids were extracted from the Priority Terrestrial Region El Momon-Montebello. The showiness of each individual was positively with higher selling prices (r= 0.67, p < 0.01). Conclusions: A significant relation was observed between the flower showiness and selling price. Orchid commercialization was performed during all the year, however, it showed two high peaks (December-January and May-June). Thus, it is necessary to organize workshops with the sellers to discuss the possibility of continuing this activity under a regulated legal framework.