{"id":15540,"date":"2013-08-06T04:45:06","date_gmt":"2013-08-06T12:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/?p=15540"},"modified":"2013-09-21T11:52:28","modified_gmt":"2013-09-21T19:52:28","slug":"black-orchids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/06\/black-orchids\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Orchids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are these orchids really black? Though common in fantasy novels and perfume names, black orchids exist only in legend. Even varieties which appear black are actually dark purple or dark brown. The fact that they don’t exist in nature doesn’t stop the orchid world from trying. Many orchid breeders labor to turn myth into fact by raising ever darker hybrids<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Dracula<\/a>\"Dracula<\/a>\"Paphiopedilum<\/a><\/p>\n

These almost-black orchids exude exotic beauty, intrigue, and mystery. Many have “black” or “midnight” in their names, like the Black Orchid<\/a> which is the national flower<\/a> of Belize. Members of the Dracula<\/a> and Paph<\/a> families above, and the Catasetum and Oncidium<\/a> families below, show how closely these flowers approach an ebony color.<\/p>\n

\"Fredclarkeara<\/a>\"Fredclarkeara<\/a>\"Oncidium<\/a><\/p>\n

Some of these orchids are dark enough to inspire the claim to being black, but some just seem to be wishful thinking, or an attempt to boost flower sales. The Coelogyne<\/a> and Cymbidiums<\/a> below don’t need to claim an obsidian pedigree to look classy and luxurious. Maybe orchid hybridizers or scientists will someday create the elusive color, and finally claim the title of a truly black orchid. Until then, the black orchid legend lives on.<\/p>\n

\"Coelogyne<\/a>\"Cymbidium<\/a>\"Cymbidium<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are these orchids really black? Though common in fantasy novels and perfume names, black orchids exist only in legend. Even varieties which appear black are actually dark purple or dark brown. The fact that they don’t exist in nature doesn’t stop the orchid world from trying. Many orchid breeders labor to turn myth into fact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc","category-photos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15540"}],"version-history":[{"count":57,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16322,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15540\/revisions\/16322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}