What Makes an Orchid an Orchid … Part 1 (Fun Facts)

Here is the scenario that first made me take the plunge in to growing orchids: I was walking through one of the local "big box stores", in the middle of winter, and stumbled across a display of a few orchids for sale. At the time I hardly knew they were even orchids and if it weren't for the sign on the display I probably wouldn't have known for sure. Maybe it was my need to see something green in the midst of white, and long, Michigan winter; maybe it was the subliminal thought of wanting to grow orchids when I was a child finally manifesting itself; or maybe it was just the pretty flowers; either way I walked out of there with my first orchid: a Phalaenopsis, or Moth Orchid.

Now I would like to just share some facts about the orchid family before we dive in to what actually distinguishes them from other flowering plants. It should also be noted that I'm one of those people who likes to make analogies between things so we may do a few fun exercises involving that, too.

First, there are approximately 880 orchid genera today. For those of you who may already own a few orchids, the genus name is "phalaenopsis" or "cattleya" or "paphiopedilum". It's also the first part of the name when you look at an orchid's tag from it's pot. For example, Oncidium Sharry Baby has a genus name of Oncidium. For me, 880 genera is kind of hard to envision so lets do a little "thought experiment."

Let's say that the average person watches 4 hours of television a day and, let's say, in those 4 hours the average person watches 1 movie. If we relate 1 movie to 1 orchid genus, then it would take 880 days, or almost 2 1/2 years, to "watch" every orchid genus.

Secondly, there are between 22,000 and 25,000 orchid species within this 880 genera. The species name is also the second part of the orchid's name when you look at it's tag. Some examples would be "Vanda coerulea" and "Paphiopedilum sanderianum." If we use our movie analogy again, it would take between 60 and 68 years to watch all the species!

Thirdly, although it's hard to know exactly, but it's guessed that there are over 100,000 orchid hybrids. There are three types of hybrids:

1. Primary Hybrids - these are hybrids where both parents are orchids species. i.e. Paphiopedilum Magic Lantern is a cross between Paphiopedilum micranthum and Paphiopedilum delenatii.
2. Complex Hybrids - these are hybrids where one, if not both, parents are hybrids.
3. Intergeneric Hybrids - these are hybrids where the parents are from different genera. i.e. Laeliocattleya Exoniensis is a cross between Cattleya mossiae and Laelia crispa.

If we use our movie analogy again, it would take almost 274 years to watch all the hybrids or we would have to watch 4 movies a day for 68 years to watch all the hybrids.

The last fun fact I'd like to end with is that orchids grow natively on every continent except Antarctica. Almost every country has at least on native orchid, and if you live in the United States, every state has native orchids. I live in Michigan and we have 56 species of orchids. For a list of our orchids you can see it off of the Northwestern Michigan Orchid Society website. It should also be noted that orchids are generally a protected species so if you are thinking about transplanting one, contact your local extension offices to find out the proper way to move them, if you can move them at all, that is.

So hopefully this has peaked your curiosity about orchids. Stay tuned for more Orchids-101.

Okay, Let's Get This Started ... Really

It's funny how time gets away from you. With all my good intentions of posting to this blog on a regular basis, my life with a new baby has taken precedence. Now that we are starting to get in to a routine, and time is freeing up some, it's time to starting making good on my original intention.

So here we go!