The orchid family (Orchidaceae) contains flowers considered some of the most beautiful and most bizarre on Earth. It is the largest family of flowering plants, encompassing more than 26,000 species with 100 to 200 species discovered annually. Those amounts don't include the thousands of named orchid hybrids and cultivars. Orchids grow naturally all over the world and are either terrestrial plants or epiphytes. Epiphytes grow on trees and rocks, and they don't need soil. Assuring pollination is the main driving force behind the creation of almost unbelievable orchid flower shapes and colors.
Orchids located throughout the south-west continued to excite and amaze locals during the recent wildflower season as conservationists work to secure the endangered specimens.
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – An international team led by investigators in China, Taiwan, and Belgium has sequenced the genome of the orchid Phalaenopsis equestris — a favored parental plant in orchid breeding and the first sequenced representative of plants that perform photosynthesis using crassulacean acid metabolism.
PERFECT BLOSSOM: Research led by a National Cheng Kung University professor had slashed the amount of time needed to obtain results in the breeding of orchids
This plant, perhaps more than any other, was responsible for the orchid craze that followed.
This post will help you recognize when you are looking at an orchid species name that is named for a person or persons. And, if you are so lucky as to get to name a newly described orchid species, it will help you do it correctly if your taxonomist has stopped returning your emails. It should also help you recognize when the author of a document is attempting feats of pedantry beyond his skill level.
Orchids are delicate and unique and many only grow in certain parts of the world. They’re a lovely flower to encourage in your garden, or to have a few stems in a vase decorating your home. But how much do you know about orchids?
I am the tallest freestanding orchid and come from the perpetually cool high forests of Peru. I am reported to grow up to 44 feet or 13.5 meters high in optimum conditions. More typically I grow to 16.5 ft. high in open, sunny areas and 23 - 26 ft. in areas under a low tree canopy. My species name derives from the Latin and refers to my long stems.
Before trying anything "new", please take the time to ask others their opinion or experience in trying something "new". This could spare you in trying something that others tried, and failed. In the meantime, any orchid you might experiment with will also thank you.
I was in a nursery recently and wandered into the greenhouse where they had tropical plants generally grown indoors. There were all the typical foliage plants, such as dracaena, dieffenbachia, pothos ivy and Chinese evergreens.
I saw a beautiful collection of blooming bromeliads. But what really caught my eye was a display of phalaenopsis orchids.
Orchids are tricky, sometimes even deceitful. They have evolved seemingly endless strategies for attracting and manipulating insects, their dull-witted partners in reproduction. And curious as it may seem, winter is the prime time to locate and identify two of our native orchid species.
The basal leaves of puttyroot (Aplectrum hymale) and cranefly orchis (Tipularia discolor) emerge in late summer, after the flowering period, and are conspicuous from late November into early spring. Then as the flowering stems emerge in spring, the leaves wither and disappear. For this reason, they are sometimes described as “winter-green” or “summer-deciduous” or “winter-leaf” or “hibernal” orchids, but I think of them as “winter orchids.” Both are common in rocky moist-to-dry woodlands featuring acidic soils.
I admit it. For years, the thought of growing orchids indoors was intimidating to the point I never tried. And I’m sure I’m not the only gardener who feels this way. But if so, how do you suppose our friends feel when we present them with the gift of an orchard?
In reality, despite their reputation for being finicky flower divas, orchids aren’t difficult to grow.
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