The Orchidaceae family, one of the highest developed plants, includes more than 22,000 species of plants, which is around 10 percent of all flowering plants. Due to ecological deterioration, environmental changes, and human-caused disruptions, wild orchids are becoming endangered or extinct, and are now under protective laws, making them a plant kingdom version of the Giant Panda.

The research will be conducted by BGI and the Tsinghua University Graduate School at Shenzhen, the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, the National Orchid Conservation Center and the Institute of Botany of CAS. This project was co-launched by the 5 organizations on July the 20^th,2009. This project is going to sequencing and assembling the draft sequence of the orchid genome. It is also expected to complete the transcriptomes for the ten other orchid species.

We hope to shed light on the genomic and genetic basis and molecular mechanisms underlying the biology ecology, fascinating feature variations, unusual adaptations, and diverse evolution modes and pathways of orchids.