Brachionidium phalangiferum

Potential threats to this taxon include habitat clearance for agricultural uses and there is a potential for illicit plant collecting.

The SURUMONI Project (Barthlott et al. 1999) working in Venezuela involves research into orchids. Several protected areas are located close to the site where specimens were collected. However, funding of protected area services is said to be limited in Venezuela, meaning that regulations are difficult to enforce. Encroachment by fishing and mining industries poses a serious threat to some protected areas. Equipment and trained staff are lacking (UNEP 1996). Based on this assessment, it seems unlikely that orchids in Venezuela's national parks are adequately protected from exploitation.

The one collection of this species from Peru was made in 1956 in what is now the country's largest national park, the 1.5 million ha Manu National Park. However, knowledge of the flora of the Park is incomplete and it is not possible to give a detailed account of threatened, endemic or potentially economically important species, though it is known that the native Indians use a great many species medicinally (UNEP 2008).