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As many of you know I have a deep love for plants. I've always had a preference for those that were functional as well as attractive. A beautiful herb garden or living wall (like the one below) always grab my attention because I like to make good use of the limited living space I have and save money if possible (growing your own food is super cheap).
Photo Credit: st.houzz.com
Many plants are edible and have amazing health benefits or healing properties such as aloe (a natural antiseptic) and parsley (an excellent source of vitamin K and C). Some houseplants, such as the peace lily, are natural air purifiers. So as you can see, plants are important for a multitude of reasons in addition to being beautiful to look at and I like to be a supporter of plants and all their functions.
But what does all of this have to do with orchids??
They're just pretty and smell nice right?!
They're just pretty and smell nice right?!
Until recently, I thought of them as being overpriced and having seen the most commonly distributed Phalaenopsis spp. I found the lack of apparent diversity to be boring.
Phalaenopsis spp at the Missouri Botanical Garden - Pretty but yaaaawn
I figured if I was going to pay more than $10 for a plant I want my mind to be blown! I had seen pictures on Facebook and Instagram of orchids that looked like monkey faces or flying ducks but owning something so exotic seemed impossible. Plus actually caring for one seemed far above my level of horticultural knowledge.
Ok Ok so this is starting to sound like a whole bunch of bad excuses! I'm cheap and a little lazy when it comes to plants...so what was the turning point?
Why do I care so much about orchids now?
What changed was I put myself in situations where I could learn about and more fully appreciate orchids. My boyfriend has a small collection of highly exotic orchids and so for fun we go to lots of nurseries and local San Diego County orchid shows.
from a quick trip to check out Cal Pacific Orchid Farm in Encinitas, CA
Seems like a reeeeaaal party but I've actually grown to enjoy our trips and everything I'm learning about these specially adapted plants. Most importantly, I've learned they're not hard to take care of. A weekly watering (feeding every other week) and a location with not too much light and that's pretty much all they need! Great news for all of you low maintenance gardeners out there!
A favorite activity of ours has been trips to the orchid show/sale sponsored by the San Diego County Orchid Society. The SDCOS hosts these shows on a weekend (Sat/Sun afternoons) once a quarter at Balboa Park and its a great venue for local growers and collectors to sell and showcase their prized specimens. It's also an awesome opportunity for the non-orchid enthusiast to get a look at some extremely beautiful and diverse orchids that you wouldn't get to see at your local grocery store florist.
Credit: Trevor Adler
Some look very orchid-ish
Credit: Trevor Adler
Others come in tiny sprays of color and softness, one would never think these are orchids
Credit: Trevor Adler
Credit: Trevor Adler
Credit: Trevor Adler
The variety in color, shape, and fragrance is astounding...while much of the orchid variation seen commercially is human-made, the natural variability in orchids is tremendous. With 25,000 species and counting, orchids are one of the largest and most diverse families of flowering plants (alongside grasses). An important thing that this diversity tells us is that orchids have become extremely adaptable to very specific ecosystems and environmental factors. You see, flowers don't exist for our sole enjoyment, every color and pattern and petal shape has a specific purpose for the survival of the whole plant so flowers are expertly crafted over thousands of years of evolution to make the plant as successful as possible. For those of you who know little to nothing about plants here's a quick lesson on plant reproduction
(follow along with the picture below)
The anther and stamen of a flower contain the male parts which produce pollen (plant equivalent of sperm) and the stigma, pistil, and ovary constitute the female parts and produce offspring or seeds (equivalent of eggs in plants). To fertilize a plant and produce seeds, pollen from one plant of a species must come into contact with the sticky surface of a stigma of another plant of the same species...followed by more science-y stuff.
**Certain plant species can hybridize (reproduce successfully with other plant species) fairly easily but that gets complicated and so we'll keep it simple for this blog
Credit: learner.org
But to get the pollen to the stigma of a separate plant presents a few challenges, as plants can't walk or fly or see other plants of their species. So they employ several mechanisms to complete reproduction and most (if not all) of them depend on pure chance and luck! Some plants release their pollen into the air and let winds spread it around hoping some pollen will find another plant of the same species. But many plants use helpers called pollinators. Most of you may be familiar with bee and butterfly relationships with flowers, they get yummy sugary nectar and in return they pick up pollen (by accident) from the plant and carry it around with them to all other plants they visit and will, with lots of luck, pollinate another plant. These plant-pollinator relationships get very complicated too and both pollinators and flowers have evolved to get what they need from the other party by employing different strategies. But they represent a crucially important aspect of the natural world that even us humans heavily rely on since the crops we grow to eat and feed our livestock function on the same rules.
To be successful at reproduction plants have to attract insects, birds or bats and they use flowers to do this. Orchids have evolved to be so specific that usually their pollinator can only be a single species of pollinator found in their immediate environment. In Darwin's travels he came across an orchid Angraecum sesquipedale in Madagascar. From the positioning and measurements of the reproductive parts and nectaries, he hypothesized that only a creature with a 12 inch proboscis (tongue) would be eating/pollinating this orchid but no such creature had been discovered to match this description. 21 years after his death, the Morgan's sphinx moth Xanthopan morganii was discovered and guess what?? It had a 12 inch tongue and it was the only insect observed feeding on the orchid!
Credit: Trevor Adler
Right: Xanthopan morganii at the Natural History Museum of London
To take this a step further and get to my point...the natural predators of the sphinx moth include all birds, insects, and bats which live in that same area of Madagascar which could be dozens if not hundreds of different species. And the predators of those creatures could number even higher and so we see that this one orchid in a jungle in Madagascar is a key building block for an entire ecosystem and it relies on a single moth to ensure its survival. That right there is the big lesson I've learned while learning about orchids, that not one creature is dependent solely on itself to survive and that's why orchids are so important.
As humans expand their influence over the natural world it usually results in destruction or displacement of many species...sometimes just boring plants. But think of the role those plants play for a few insects and what those insects mean to larger animals and what those animals could mean to us. Most orchid species have little to no data on them, only that they exist, and nothing about their pollinators are known or how those pollinators interact with the ecosystem as a whole. New orchid species are being discovered every day and at the same time humans are expanding into areas which have not been studied or cataloged. As a result there are millions of plant-animal relationships that are disappearing without ever being understood. While a random flower-moth relationship in a foreign jungle seems unimportant, interference with that delicate balance could cause an upset that will echo into our lives. There is just too much unknown to take such blatant risks without some foresight.
Unfortunately, most of the damage has been done and can not be undone....So what can we do? How can YOU help??
That's the easy part! Just be open to learning about the world around you, pick up a pretty plant for yourself or someone you know who loves plants, become a collector of a species that you could help preserve, or support your local conservation societies! The possibilities are endless, the important part is that you let yourself out of your comfort zone to experience the natural world.
Now I want you to look at the next few orchid pictures and see the differences and similarities in flower structure and appearance. Take a second and imagine the interesting creatures that could be its unique pollinator.
Credit: Trevor Adler
So while an orchid society like the SDCOS seems to be a hobby group for retirees and their expensive plants, they are much more of a conservation agency than anything else. Attending these orchid shows and learning about/purchasing a plant here and there is a great way to support these local organizations. With the funds they raise, research grants are given to scientists who are working to learn more about these special plants before they disappear completely from the wild. Members of these organizations also tend to be owners of rare and exotic plants that are no longer found in the wild and will be integral to conserving these species for future generations. Another great aspect of these shows is the classes they offer throughout the afternoon. At the last show we went to in January,Trevor sat in on a short class about mounting epiphytic orchids (plants that grow on other plants).
Other classes that are offered include pest management, re-potting of certain species, fertilization techniques and breeding.
He listened and I kept snapping away and to my delight, our friend Joe stopped in to check out the show and brought his little bird, Pesto, a caique. A much more dynamic subject.
Pesto didn't seem too interested in the topic of discussion....
He was such a great photo subject and in no way was he a distraction to others...
Some fun facts about orchids:
- some countries/cultures use orchids for glues, perfumes, and herbal remedies
- vanilla is an orchid and the only one commercially produced for consumption
- After some preliminary studies, it was concluded that there is potential for medical use of orchids but not enough research has been done to verify this. There are several reasons for this: orchids are rare and many are endangered, their seeds are extremely small and notoriously hard to germinate and they only become sexually mature (produce flowers) after being grown for 5-7 years. Any future research would need to be heavily funded to adequately test orchids for mainstream medicinal use.
- orchid seeds are the size of a dust particle and have no nutritious matter for the seed to use to germinate so it must use a fungus to help it in this way.
- some orchid species lack leaf parts and chlorophyll and use decaying matter or symbiotic relationships with fungi to acquire the nutrients they need
- fossilized orchid pollen was discovered on the back of a bee and dating has put orchid origins as far back as the Pangaea split (120 mya)
- orchids are economically important in the multi-billion dollar horticultural business, being the most popularly sold flower in the US and UK (tied with the peace lily)
After we were done with our fun at the orchid show we walked across the way to the botanical building in Balboa Park and then out to the fountain and spent some time enjoying our surroundings, people-watching, and practicing some photography.
I've talked about botanical gardens/parks before in my blog about Missouri's Botanical Garden but this is a great chance to share again their importance which is similar to the importance of plant societies and conservation programs. They are living storage of many rare plant species and a chance for us to recreate their wild surroundings and see how they interact with other plant species. As human encroachment continues and we see the loss of many precious plant species, these botanical gardens will end up housing the last specimens as we lose them in the wild. With their preservation, research and future reintroduction is still possible so I encourage you to support your local public gardens.
Not a plant...
I loved these water droplets on the leaves
And this little Mallard tail is to die for :)
Anyways, I hope this opened your eyes a little bit into the world of orchids and plants in general. If anything, I would encourage you to take a minute every day to look around you and observe the plants in your office or parking lots or backyards and appreciate them for the special role they play and the complexity behind those pretty little flowers. Being aware of the world we live in and our role in it is the first step we can take to make positive change in our communities.
So get out there and explore your world!
More blogs to come! Goodnight!!!
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Helpful Links
So get out there and explore your world!
More blogs to come! Goodnight!!!
****************************************************
Helpful Links
Botanical Garden Conservation International - Learn more about the mission of botanical gardens and where you can find the nearest one to you!
American Orchid Society - Orchid 101 for Beginners
Urban Gardening - The guys at Woolly Pockets make super cute and easy to transport vertical gardening shelves, as well as raised beds and table planters. Great for anyone without a yard or someone who's nomadic like me :) Big Bonus: all of their planters are made from 100% recycled plastic bottles!!
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