Dracula under siege: Persistent demand for a threatened and range-restricted taxa

We compiled trade data for Dracula species by integrating multiple datasets to characterize both market patterns and species attributes. We aggregated CITES Trade Database data by species to calculate cumulative trade volume and temporal trade span (number of years with recorded transactions). Species-level biological and horticultural traits were compiled from multiple sources: conservation status (EN= endangered, VU= vulnerable, NT= not threaten, and DD= data deficient; IUCN, 2020) and geographic range (number of known localities) from IUCN Red List assessments(IUCN, 2025); horticultural requirements as growth temperature conditions (categorical: humid, hot, mid), cultivation difficulty (categorical: easy, mid-difficult), flowering pattern (categorical: unifloral and multifloral) from specialized growers and protologues of the original descriptions(Baquero et al., 2025; Baquero & Meyer, 2014; Castellanos-Castro & Torres-Martínez, 2018; Gruss & Wolff, 2007; Luer, 1993); current market prices averaged across multiple commercial vendors (from websites, appendix 2); and morphological measurements (maximum leaf length, maximum sepal tail length in cm) from taxonomic descriptions(Baquero et al., 2025; L. Baquero & Meyer, 2014; Luer, 1993; Peláez et al., 2009, 2020). We restricted analyses to species with complete data across all variables (n = 72 species, remove D. cordobae due to the unusual export of 4938 individuals in 2004), representing the subset of Dracula taxa with sufficient trade history and biological documentation for analysis.