Orchids

No flowering plant has captured the attention of humans, or stirred their passions, in quite the way that orchids have. In past ages, orchids -- in all their 20,000 or so wild varieties -- have been hunted and collected in almost every part of the world. Today, millions of people remain devoted to the plant and its exotically beautiful "faces." NATURE looks at the human fascination with these strangely compelling flowers in OBSESSION WITH ORCHIDS.

Orchids form the world's largest family of plants. They grow wild in every country except Antarctica. There are many varieties of Orchids, with more than 20,000 species found in nature worldwide. Belonging to a huge family of plants called Orchidaceae, they are earth's most varied family of flowers. They continue to fascinate people all over the world. They are captivating, exotic and amazingly colorful plants. An Orchid plant adds grace to any room. They have become surprisingly affordable to any Orchid enthuasist.

The flowers of orchids appear to be very complicated, but in reality they are based on a very simple structure. Like many of their relatives such as the lily family. Orchids have three sepals and three petals, this similarity with other plants is only superficial as all orchids have their middle petal transformed into a unique structure called the labellum or lip. This petal is always quite different from the other two petals. Orchids also have a different reproduction feature. Instead of separate male and female organs, the stamen and pistils, these are combined into a single structure called the column. Orchid seeds are like tiny dust specks. They are placed in sterile flasks in a mixture of sugar and nutrients. The flask acts like a tiny green house. The seedlings remain in the flask for about a year. They are then moved to a community pot. They grow in the pot for eight months to a year. They are then moved to individual pots. It can take up to seven years to grow a mature blooming plant, depending on what type of an orchid is being grown.

Orchid species have developed blooms to entice the insects that pollinate them. They also control when their fragrance is at it's peak. Some orchids are pollinated by night flying Moths therefore their fragrance is best at night.

Most orchids are epiphytic—they grow on tree trunks and branches. They not only grow in tropical rain forest trees, many species actuallygrow on rocks(they use the rock as an anchor - something to hold on to for support just like their tree-living cousins). Others are terrestrial but grow in organic debris rather than in soil. Terrestrial orchids grow in meadows, woodlands, and on mountain sides. On average it takes 4-5 years for a plant to reach blooming size. With proper care, that plant will get continue to get larger and more floriferous.