3.2. Orchid dynamics related to land cover
There were contrasted trends in current proportions of urban, forest and grassland areas along a North–South gradient in our study area (Supplementary material A3). When relating observed orchid dynamics to these current land covers, we found a significant positive linear relationship between SESdisp in each administrative unit and the corresponding proportion of urban area (P < 0.001, Table 1) but not with agricultural and natural areas (P > 0.05, Table 1). In regard to appearances, SESapp was negatively related to urban area (P < 0.05, Table 1) and positively related to agricultural area (P < 0.05, Table 1).