Verdant Isle Orchid Research 

Verdant Isle Orchid Research was created in 2012 as a platform for studies of Cayman Islands native orchids, including their ecology, genetics, pollination and in vitro propagation.  Pollinators of Myrmecophila thomsoniana (the national flower) have been identified including a new species of weevil, Lachnopus vanessablockae Giron &O'Brien.  A scoping study of the genetics of Cayman Islands endemic orchids was carried out at RGBKew in May 2013.  The results of research carried out in the Herbarium and Archives at that time were published in the Kew Bulletin in 2016.