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The Daffodil Orchid, Ipsea speciosa, is a rare endemic terrestrial orchid species found in the highland grasslands of Sri Lanka. Due to the restricted distribution range, this species is considered as an endangered taxon. This study aimed to assess the present state of I. speciosa populations outside of protected areas. During field investigations of nine selected grasslands, the abundance of I speciosa and accompanying plant species composition was determined. The abundance of I. speciosa varied from 2 to 23 flowering plants per site. Species composition in study sites consisted of 41 plant taxa that included 12 invasive species. Habitat deterioration, intentional burning, clearing of vegetation, and spread of invasive alien plant species were found to be the most significant threats to highland grasslands and the orchid. During the survey, we observed the rapid spreading of invasive species in most of the sites which suggests that the terrestrial orchid population could shrink further. Apart from intentional burning, other serious threats to the orchids are various anthropogenic activities such as illegal collection for medicinal purposes and establishing timber plantations that negatively impact native grassland flora including terrestrial orchids. Our results suggest that a continuous monitoring program for I. speciosa should be initiated. Additionally, monitoring of potentially adverse anthropogenic activities is considered to be vital for the conservation of valuable grasslands and native flora of Sri Lanka. Key worDS: Epidendroideae, grasslands, invasive species, native flora, terrestrial orchids, threatened species Received 22 Januay 2020; accepted for publication 4 April 2020. First published online: 18 April 2020. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivs 3.0 Costa Rica License. introduction. Sri Lanka, with a total land area of 65,610 km2 is a tropical island located in the Indian Ocean bearing a rich and unique biodiversity. The Central Highlands complex is situated in the south-central part of the island and is considered as a super biodiversity hotspot (uneSco 2010). More than 50% of the endemic vertebrates, 50% of the endemic flowering plants and more than 34% of the endemic trees, shrubs, and herbs are reported from these diverse montane rainforests and associated grassland areas (Gunawardene et al. 2007, Ministry of Environment 2012). Orchidaceae is among the largest families of flowering plants in the country with 189 known species, belonging to 78 genera, including 55 endemic species (Fernando 2013). More than any other plant family, Orchidaceae has a high proportion of threatened genera with most containing threatened species (Swarts & Dixon 2009). Considering the Sri Lankan orchids, 70.6% of the species including 84% of the endemics are categorized as threatened. Within this 8.6% of the species are Critically Endangered (CR), 29.3% are Endangered (EN) and 32.6% of species are Vulnerable (VU). Further, 2.2% of the species are Critically Endangered Possibly Extinct [CR(PE)], 14.1% are Near Threatened (NT) (Ministry of Environment 2012). The distribution and abundance of orchid populations depend on a suite of biological and ecological factors, including pollinator specialization, seed production and dispersal, limited germination rates, the viability of mycorrhizal fungi (Otero & Flanagan 2006) and appropriate environmental conditions (McCormick & Jacquemyn 2014). Besides, temperature, altitude, and soil pH are the main factors affecting the distribution and abundance of terrestrial orchid species (Djordjević et al. 2016). Sustainability of orchid populations is determined by changes in the number of individuals within a population, the degree of completeness in the ontogenetic spectrum of species,

The endangered Daffodil Orchid Ipsea speciosa (Orchidaceae): Population status in unprotected areas in the Central Highlands, Sri Lanka