EOPC was founded in February 1985 with the aim to keep alive the Estonian native orchid paradise and to acquaint people with orchids as a lot of harm might be done to these plants through ignorance. The other purpose has been to concentrate people with different background interested in orchids and give them possibility to communicate and improve their knowledge of these plants.
There are about 50 members in EOPC all over Estonia who are representatives of all kinds of professions. Twice a winter there are meetings where talks are delivered and in every summer there have been two excursions to different parts of Estonia for studying orchids. 1987 members of our Club visited Åland - an island in the Baltic Sea belonging to Finland - to proceed a project of reintroduction of orchid species. From Estonia 30 plants of Herminium monorchis were taken and planted there and from Åland 30 plants of Dactylorhiza sambucina were brought to Estonia. These species were destroyed in both countries at the beginning of this century. Posters with native orchid species have been published to demonstrate their beauty and make them familiar among people. In 1994 a book was published (Orchid Ecology and Protection in Estonia, edited by T.Kull) to give the possibility to foreign people to get an idea of the richness of Estonian orchid flora and studies of it. In 1994 our small journal Ööviiul (Estonian name for Platanthera) started to appear.
Estonian flora includes 36 species of Orchidaceae.


President: Tiiu Kull
Institute of Zoology and Botany, Riia 181, Tartu 51014, Estonia
E-mail: tiiu@zbi.ee

Vice-president: Taavi Tuulik
Jausa, Hiiumaa, Estonia

Secretary: Laimdota Truus
Institute of Ecology, Kevade 2, Tallinn, Estonia
E-mail: laimi@eco.estnet.ee

Members of the board: Lemmi Jõe, Rainar Kurbel, Heldi Ojaste, Mari Reitalu, Olaf Schmeidt.