The
orchid family is not only the largest but also one of the most diverse
plant flowering families in the world. The orchid was one of the first
plants to evolve on earth, it was around in the time of the dinosaur,
over 120 million years ago. Given the length of time they have been
around it shouldn’t be surprising that there are over 35,000 species
with hundreds of thousands of hybrids.
The
most famous orchid in the world is the vanilla orchid (planifolia). Coca
Cola is the largest customer of vanilla as they use the seed for
flavouring. Madagascar is the world’s largest producer. Orchids are
very beautiful plants and that is why so much time and care is put into
growing them. Vanilla on the other hand is grown for its commercial
value rather than for its appearance but it is labour intensive. The
vanilla crop is the main source of income for many independent farmers
in less developed countries.
Reproduction
One
of the ways in which the orchid is so diverse is its ability to
reproduce. Some orchids rely on flying insects, others rely on crawling
insects and finally there are orchids that rely on the wind for
pollination.
The
Bee Orchid attracts bees to its flower by its appearance. It looks like
a receptive bee which entices the male bee towards its pollinia. Other
orchids have long stems which look as they are butterflies when dancing
in the wind.
Some
orchids have evolved so that they act as a good platform which attracts
a weary insect to land. The nectar brought by the visiting insect
brushes against the pollinia. Orchids sometimes have very slippery
flowers which often results in the visiting insect falling into the
interior of the flower leaving only one exit point. This escape route
forces the welcome intruder into brushing nectar against the pollina.
Darwin
Charles
Darwin wrote about orchids when demonstrating his theory of evolution by
natural selection. He made a prediction about the pollination method of
one particular orchid, the Angreacum Sesquipidales. He predicted that
given this particular species emitted a strong scent at night and was
white, the insect that pollinated it would be a moth. Darwin was proved
right and it is in fact a moth that pollinates the Angreacum
Sesquipidales.
Popularity of Orchids
Orchids
have become immensely popular recently but they have been written about
and cultivated for a very long time. Orchids were first written about in
700 B.C. by the Chinese and Japanese. They weren’t, however, first
cultivated until around 300 years ago when seeds were bought by traders
from around the globe. It was only the wealthy that could cultivate them
initially but luckily this pleasure is available to many more people
these days. Even with our 300 year cultivating experience, many a
gardener has been frustrated by the care needed to grow beautiful
orchids but this only adds to their popularity.
