Orchids of Nepal (Sunakhari): Species Count, Genera & CITES Guide

Nepal is one of the richest countries in the Himalaya for orchids relative to its size. The most detailed published account, an annotated checklist by Rokaya and colleagues in the Nordic Journal of Botany (2013), records 458 orchid taxa for Nepal: 104 genera, 437 species, 16 varieties, 3 subspecies and 2 forma, of which 18 species are endemic (found nowhere else). This is why the topic is usually summarised as roughly '400-plus orchid species' or, counting all taxa, 'about 450'.

Earlier and later counts differ slightly because taxonomy keeps changing and new species are still being described. Rajbhandari and Dahal's checklist published through the Department of Plant Resources (DPR) in 2004 listed around 377 species in about 100 genera, and popular and trade sources often round the figure to '400-500 species'. The safest durable statement is that Nepal has more than 400 recorded orchid species, with the peer-reviewed total for all taxa standing at 458.

Orchids (family Orchidaceae) are among the largest plant families on Earth, with roughly 28,000-30,000 species worldwide, so Nepal's tally represents a small but globally significant slice concentrated in the mountains. Because orchids are difficult to identify and many are tiny epiphytes high in the forest canopy, botanists expect the Nepal count to keep rising as surveys reach less-explored districts.

In Nepali, orchids are known collectively as sunakhari (सुनाखरी) or sungava (सुनगाभा), and wild orchid tubers and pseudobulbs are widely traded under the name sunakhari. The name is linked to the shiny, golden ('suna' means gold) pseudobulbs of many species. In everyday speech 'sunakhari phool' simply means orchid flower, and the plants are prized in Nepali homes, temples and festivals for their long-lasting, showy blooms.

Several individual orchids also have distinct vernacular names. Dendrobium densiflorum is often called sungava; the fragrant Coelogyne cristata is known as chandigava; and the protected terrestrial orchid Dactylorhiza hatagirea is the famous panch aunle or panchaule ('five fingers', after its hand-shaped tuber). These local names matter for the trade, because dried tubers and stems are frequently sold under Nepali names rather than scientific ones, which complicates enforcement.

Culturally, orchids are admired as ornamental 'phool' (flowers) and several also carry medicinal reputations. Panchaule tubers are used in traditional tonics believed to be invigorating, and species such as the two 'jivanti' orchids appear in Ayurvedic-style preparations. This dual identity — beautiful ornamental and valuable medicinal — is exactly what drives both the affection for and the over-collection of Nepal's orchids.

Nepal's orchids span an enormous vertical range, roughly 60 metres in the lowland Tarai up to about 5,200 metres in the alpine zone. Because temperature, rainfall and forest type change dramatically with altitude, different orchid life-forms dominate different belts. Broadly, warm-loving epiphytes (which grow on tree trunks and branches) are concentrated at lower elevations, while terrestrial orchids (rooted in soil) become more common on the cool, moist slopes higher up.

In the tropical and subtropical belt (roughly below 1,000-1,500 m), epiphytic genera such as Dendrobium, Aerides, Vanda, Bulbophyllum and Rhynchostylis thrive in the warm, humid Tarai forests, Chure hills and lower valleys. The temperate mid-hills (about 1,500-3,000 m) are the orchid heartland, hosting Coelogyne, Cymbidium, Pleione, Eria, Otochilus and many terrestrial groups; studies find orchid species richness peaks around 2,000-2,200 m. Above the tree line, in the subalpine and alpine zones, hardy terrestrial orchids such as Dactylorhiza (panchaule), Herminium, Habenaria and Satyrium survive the harsh conditions.

This altitudinal spread means orchid diversity is spread across the whole country, from Chitwan and the eastern Tarai to conservation areas like Annapurna, where one survey recorded 224 orchid species — a striking share of the national total in a single protected area. Because so many species are tied to specific forest types and elevation bands, habitat loss and climate change threaten them unevenly, with narrow-range and high-altitude species most at risk.

The genera below are among the most species-rich or most sought-after in Nepal, whether for their ornamental beauty, their commercial value in the horticulture trade, or their use in traditional medicine. Species counts vary by survey area, but Bulbophyllum, Dendrobium, Coelogyne and the terrestrial Herminium and Habenaria consistently rank among the largest genera in Nepal.

For hobbyists and the horticulture trade, the showy genera Dendrobium (sungava), Cymbidium, Vanda, Coelogyne, Pleione, Aerides and Rhynchostylis are the most desirable. For conservation and law, the standout is Dactylorhiza hatagirea (panchaule) — a high-altitude terrestrial orchid strictly protected in Nepal — and the lady's-slipper Paphiopedilum, whose Nepali species are listed under the strictest CITES appendix. The checklist below pairs key genera with their common Nepali or trade names and typical habitat.

All orchids on Earth are listed under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), which Nepal has been a party to since 1975. This means every one of Nepal's orchid species is CITES-listed: the great majority sit in Appendix II, which allows regulated international trade only with a permit and a scientific 'non-detriment finding', while the lady's-slipper orchids of the genus Paphiopedilum (such as P. insigne and P. venustum) are in Appendix I, the strictest category, where commercial trade in wild-collected plants is prohibited.

Domestically, orchids are protected under the Forest Act, 1993 (2049 BS) and the Forest Regulation, 1995 (2051 BS), which, with later amendments, list all orchids as protected and specifically ban the collection, use, sale and export of Dactylorhiza hatagirea (panchaule). In practice, Nepal has not finalised the national species-management plans and non-detriment findings needed to authorise legal commercial orchid exports, so wild-orchid collection for trade remains effectively banned. Nepal's CITES commitments are administered through the Department of Plant Resources (DPR) as the scientific authority for flora.

The upshot for readers is important: buying, digging, transporting or exporting wild orchids from Nepal is generally illegal, and taking any orchid across an international border requires CITES documentation. Cultivated, artificially propagated orchids are treated more leniently under CITES, which is why building a legal nursery-based industry — rather than stripping wild plants — is repeatedly urged as the sustainable path for Nepal.

Despite full legal protection, Nepal's orchids are under heavy pressure from illegal collection and habitat destruction. Sometimes described as the 'tigers of the plant world' for their value and vulnerability, wild orchids are dug up for the horticulture trade and for traditional medicine, then smuggled — often disguised under generic Nepali trade names like sunakhari — mainly toward India and China. The scale is hard to measure but clearly large: for the 2008-2016 period, Chinese customs reportedly recorded far more orchid imports from Nepal than Nepal's own records showed, pointing to substantial unrecorded flows.

Enforcement seizures illustrate the problem. Authorities have intercepted large consignments of panchaule (Dactylorhiza hatagirea) worth tens of thousands of US dollars, and species such as Pleione praecox (traded as 'pani amala'), Satyrium nepalense, Dendrobium aphyllum and Dendrobium longicornu are among those commonly collected. Because rural collectors are paid a fraction of the final value and rarely know a plant's true worth, over-harvesting is both unsustainable and economically unfair to local communities.

The other major threat is habitat loss. Deforestation, forest fires, road building, agricultural expansion and firewood collection destroy the specific trees and slopes that epiphytic and terrestrial orchids depend on, while climate change shifts the narrow elevation bands many species need. Conservationists argue that combining stronger enforcement with legal, nursery-based propagation and community benefit-sharing offers the best chance to protect Nepal's orchids while still allowing people to earn from them.