Research: Shade grown coffee and orchids

A paper in the journal Conservation Biology reports that shade coffee plantations in Mexico provide refuge for orchids from lower montane cloud forest habitats -- the most endangered forest type in the country, now comprising only 1% of Mexico's land.

Solis-Montero, L., A. Flores-Palacios, and A. Cruz-Angon.  2005.  Shade-coffee plantations as refuges for tropical wild orchids in central Veracruz, Mexico.  Conservation Biology 19:908-916.

The magazine of the American Orchid Society published a similar article years ago:

Nir, M.A. 1988. The survivors: orchids on a Puerto Rican coffee finca.  American Orchid Society Bulletin 57:989-995.