For many people the word “orchid” conjures up images of exotic, expensive, delicate and rare flowers but the truth is far from this romantic image. The Orchidaceae family probably comprises the most species of all the families of flowering plants. Estimates of the total number of orchid species vary widely, however, figures such as 20.000 or 30,000 are often mentioned. This represent about ten per cent of the world’s flowering plants.
Orchids are also among the most adaptable plants. They are not restricted the tropical jungles, as the uninitiated sometimes imagine. Orchids can be found growing naturally on every continent, except Antartica.
Where Orchids Grows
Orchids occur in environments as diverse as Arctic tundras, dry savannas, and tropical jungles. Only the driest deserts, the coldest mountain tops, or permenant snowfields have proved unsuited to orchids. They are most abundant in the tropical jungles of Central and South America and in Southest Asia, and the island of the malay Archipelago.
New Guinea may well be the richest orchid area on the planet. The number of the spcies there is not known with any certainly as new species are discovered on a frequent basis, but estimates are around the 3000-3500 mark. Other areas such as Borneo, Colombia, Venezuela, or Brazil may have a similar density.
The factors that combine to prompte a bountiful supply of orchids are topoghraph and geograpy of these places. All these regions have high reliable rainfalland, being close to the equator, there is little difference between the summer and winter temperatures. All of them have rugged terrains, which gives rise to diversty of lowland and highland climates. When looking for orchids in forest country, light is often the key. A lowland forest may have few species over much of its area, but the numbers increase dramaticlly when the forest canopy is broken by a large stream or rock face. In thiese situations, light is much more avaible and air movement is good- two conditions most orchids appreciate.
In many tropical regions orchids will colonize disurbed areas, such roadside embankments or landslide remains. On a forest tree different types of epiphytes will be found on the mayor branches, but smaller, delicate spcies grom in the outer canopy, and these are known as “twig epiphytes”
Some spcies grow almost exclusively in clumps of peat formed by epiphytic ferns. Emergent trees that protrude well above the canopy are usualy rich in orchids, as are isolated trees left in paddocks after clearing.
Temperate meadows , grasslands, heathlands, and open forests support numerous terrestrial orchids. Both North America and Europe have an abundance of interesting species. Orchids in this situation have underground storage organs, such as tubers. They take advantage of wet season to grow and flower, then drop their leaves and survive the dry and cold parts of the year by retreating to these underground parts. These orchids are sometimes most prolific where the soil is moist, such as the foot of boulders or along stream banks, but many are simply scrattered at random across the country side. Often flowers in grassy habitats flower more profusely after there has been a wild fire.
The Big and The Small
What is the largest orchid in the world? Often the answer is Grammatophyllum speciosum from Southeast Asia and New Guinea. Equally, the tittle of the “smallest” requires definition. The Australian Bulbophyllum globuliforme, with pseudobulbs less than 3mm across and virtually no leaf, may qualify, but one of these plants comprises many small pseudobulbs connected by a rhizome.
Orchids and Human
The first definite references to orchids are in early Chinese writings from about 800 BC. In Europe, the earlist interest known in orchids dates back to the ancient Greeks, but the interest was a little earthy than that of the oriental cultures. The paired tuber of the local terrestrial species were thouht to resemble testicles for which the latin word is Orchis- from this word came the names orchid and orchidaceae.
Orchids were introduced into cultivation in Europe in the middle of the Eighteenth century. By the early 1800s, they were becoming popularamong the well-to-do who could afford a glasshouse. Unfortunately, most of these importations had a short life as a large number died on the long journey from the Americas or Asia. Many tales have been told of the advanteures of the orchid collectors from this period. Clearly this practises could not continue indefinitely, and Worl War I finally put a stop to them. After the war things had changed. Most of the spectacular species had been discovered and in cultivation, but more than that, fashions had changed. What began to emerge were tecniques for growing orchids from seed and producing hybrids. Large free-flowering hybrids became avaible and these grew more readily in cultivation than the species. Finally, production of these plants spread to all over the world from English nobblements.
Orchid Plant
İt is difficult to generalize about the structure of the orchid plant. They have adapted to grow in a extremely diverse array of habitat in all sorts of climates, and the structure of each species has diversifed to suit the prevailing conditions. Many orchids grow on a trees and these are known as epiphytes. When they grow on rocks they are called lithopytes, and in the ground, terrestrials.
Epiphytes and lithophytes face particular problems, the main one being that the economysubstrate in which they grow does not retain moisture. Storage organs, such as swollen stems (pseudobulbs) or succulent leaves, have evolved to solve this problem. Roots are also adapted to help with water economy. Many epiphytes have thicker roots than seems neccesary,but these are able to anchor the plant to the substrate and rapidly absorb large quanteties of water when it rains. Other epiphytes tak
e advantage of clumps of ferns that produce large amounts of moisture-holding peat., or they grow in thick mats of moss or in leaf litter in the forks of trees.
Terrestrial orchids contend with different problems, depending on the habitat in which they grow. Those from open habitats, such as the veld in Africa or coastal heatlands in Australia , often have the cope with a dry season with little avaible moisture. In North America they may have to survive harsh winters including being covered with snow. The range of adaptattions in orchids seem endless and in this lies a large part of their charm to gardeners. Many have large , colorful flowers but there are even more that are less beautiful, but are wierd, strange, unusual, interesting or even bizarre in form.
Cultivation
You cant care theses plants. They die.. The Vanda you give 15$ for, dies in 3 weeks, the present Paphiopedilums dies behind the window in a month wiith a linger. Or the Cymbidium you bought from garden market can assume itself a bambu and may never bloom again.. Geranium! Plant everywhere geranium. Leave these happy minority in Bauhous alone..
İf you are kind of “ I watered twice a week, put somewhere sunny, still dead” or “ I even fertilized, did not work, at last, I planted it in fertilizer, still dead” person, the upper paragraph was written for you. İf you apply my advide, at last all mono cotiledon world, you, even me can be happy …
Lets now the subject, if you want to have a wierd plant with gorgeous flowers in your house, and if you dont have species obsession, you can start with choosing right species according to climate which you can provide at home. Because, the plant which can adapt light-heat-moist situation in your place, can grow succesfuly without much struggle. Forexample, lowland species such as Phalaenophsis, needs +24C heat but can harm with direct sun light, or Phaphiopedilums likes morning sun and strong day light but needs heat fall at nights for blooming. Requires determine by habitats. If you want to have an orchid with healthy bloom, you gotta start with where it grows in nature.
Aim of this article, summarize this extraordinary plants basicly and show you the miracle of nature. Next topics about orchids will be about most cultivated or most common orchids, easy species for cultivation or attracts me with wierdness and beauty.
For photografs and more info;
1) http://www.orchidkarma.com/
2) ORCHİDS, Botanica’s Pocket, U. F. Ullmann
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