Illegal wildlife trade represents a global conservation priority, but the booming illegal trade in wild plants remains understudied. We use the Mexican orchid trade to illustrate an interdisciplinary approach to provide novel insight on conservation strategies and policies. We synthesize studies of orchid markets, national orchid confiscation records, CITES registers, and global population dynamics studies to document trade patterns and potential ecological impacts. We found 333 wild‐harvested orchid taxa illegally traded in domestic markets. Clear patterns emerged: 90% were epiphytic and <4% traded in high volumes, all of which had pseudobulbs and bloomed during cultural festivals. Most sales were pseudobulbs, not whole plants. Review of demographic studies indicates whole‐plant harvest is unviable but simulations show potential for sustainable harvest of pseudobulbs. The combination of social and ecological findings suggests a novel multipronged approach to improve conservation, including selective monitoring, enforcement focused on whole‐plant harvest, and community‐based wild harvest of pseudobulbs.

中文翻译：

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野生兰花贸易和人口统计资料的综合为保护战略提供了新见识

野生动植物非法贸易是全球保护的重中之重，但野生植物非法贸易的兴旺发展仍未得到充分研究。我们使用墨西哥兰花贸易来说明一种跨学科的方法，以提供有关保护策略和政策的新颖见解。我们对兰花市场，国家兰花没收记录，CITES注册簿以及全球人口动态研究进行综合研究，以记录贸易模式和潜在的生态影响。我们发现在国内市场上非法交易的333种野生兰花类群。出现了清晰的模式：90％为附生植物，＜4％进行大量交易，所有这些植物都有假鳞茎并且在文化节期间开花。大多数销售是假鳞茎，而不是整个工厂。对人口学研究的回顾表明，整株植物的收获是不可行的，但模拟显示了可持续种植假鳞茎的潜力。社会和生态学发现的结合提出了一种新颖的多管齐下的方法来改善保护，包括选择性监测，针对整株植物的执法以及对假鳞茎的社区性野生收获。