Scientists studying the large and diverse orchid family continue to find bizarre pollination tricks. An endangered orchid species from southern China is the first orchid known to use both flowers and leaves as part of its deception. This rare lady slipper looks and smells like it has a fungal infection. Cypripedium fargesii lives as high […]
The UK is anticipating a wild orchid summer. With 50 fascinating British species, The Independent has blooming schedules and helpful info for finding orchids in the wild. The article has good photos, including shots of some European relations to the Epipactis and Orchis that I grow. The Wildlife Trusts, a conservation group, has more info […]
A small Australian lab is offering new hope for the Brilliant Sun Orchid. This endangered species is one of 15 rare Aussie natives that the lab is trying to grow from seed to bolster wild populations. Thelymitra mackibbinii, a.k.a. the Brilliant Sun Orchid, has suffered from habitat destruction, competition from alien plants, and damage from […]
The orchid family is full of strange pollination mechanisms. Catasetums have sweet scents, but it’s their incredible trick for gluing pollen to bees which has intrigued scientists from Darwin until now. When a bee touches a hair trigger, the orchid ejects glue and pollen to land on a precise spot on the bee’s back. I’ve […]
You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, but rotting meat works even better. A strange little South African orchid has figured this out, and attracts pollinating flies with a deathly odor. Satyrium pumilum grows as a terrestrial in wet, sandy soil. During the day, its flowers emit a weak scent of decaying […]
Illinois College biologists are bringing some rare orchids home to Hawaii. Like I blogged last May, this Platanthera species, also known as the Fringed Orchid, is one of the few true island natives, and it’s endangered. Habitat destruction, invasive plants and animals, and theft from the wild have severely reduced the wild population. In 1992, […]
Australian scientists recently celebrated the successful cultivation of the bizarre Eastern Underground Orchid. Now, they’re learning about plant genetics from its close cousin, the Western Underground Orchid. This weird plant is also a Rhizanthella species, and lives below ground, except when its flowers peek through the soil. Without green leaves for photosynthesis, it survives by […]
Australian conservationists have had notable success lately, and now they’ve rediscovered an extinct orchid species. The Robust Greenhood Orchid, Pterostylis valida, is a long-lost cousin of the Greenhood that I grow. Believed extinct since 1941, it’s been rediscovered in an area outside of Melbourne. It’s no coincidence that the new-found plants are growing on land […]
Australian scientists have successfully cultivated the bizarre Eastern Underground Orchid for the first time. Australia is known for its fascinating flora and fauna, but this endangered orchid may be the one of the most bizarre plant species in the world. Rhizanthella lives almost entirely underground, and only emerges above ground when it flowers. Without leaves, […]
Why would a Florida biologist grow orchids when he’s trying to rescue panthers? Larry Richardson, chief biologist at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, explains that South Florida’s orchids love wetlands like panthers do. When the wetlands thrive, so do their plants and animals. Richardson says “it’s not much of a stretch likening panthers to […]
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