Orchidaceae is the largest family of flowering plants. More than 26,000 species around the world account for 10% of all flowering plant species. Orchids have adapted to almost every environment on earth and can be found from the dry scrub land to snow-covered mountains. Orchids are perennial herbs and lack any permanent woody structure. There are two patterns of orchid growing; monopodial and sympodial. Orchids are mainly epiphytic (growing on trees) or lithophytic (growing on rocks) but there are also terrestrial (growing on the ground) even some rare species live and bloom underground. The leaves of the orchids correspond and adjust to their specific habitats.
There is a large variety in flowers; from spotted to striped, to robust
and rounded, to sleek to star shapes.
Some species have large distinctive petals, bulbous affairs while others
can be quite discrete. Commonly, an orchid flower consists of three
petals, three sepals and creates a pinwheel formation with the
reproductive organ, called the column, in the center of it. The shape is
characteristically bilaterally symmetrical (the left and right halves
of the blossom are mirror images), a necessity for reliable pollination
by insects. The column consists of female and male organs, this feature
sets the orchid apart from other flowers.
They have fleshy roots to secure themselves on trees, branches or bark
with an off white external layer which is a spongy cell to absorb water.
If the flower is successfully pollinated, the ovary will develop into a
capsule with three or six longitudinal slits, remaining closed at both
ends. The fruit can take 2-18 months to ripe and contain over a million
microscopic seeds per capsule. The seeds are distributed by wind and due
to the lack of endosperm, they must enter a symbiotic relationship with
mycorrhizal fungi to germinate.
ORCHIDS.
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