The Beauty of Orchids

“Paint bamboo when you are angry; orchids when you are happy.”

Orchids have been loved by Oriental gardeners for thousands of years now. Who would not fall in love with the subtle beauty of Orchids? No wonder a lot of plant lovers loves collecting them.

Orchids have been loved by Oriental gardeners for thousands of years now. Who would not fall in love with the subtle beauty of Orchids? No wonder a lot of plant lovers loves collecting them.

Orchids are special because of its subtle beauty. Moreover, it also has endless colors and forms. 

The beauty of wild orchids can be found in various places such as mountain peaks, deserts, humid tropical forests and swamps. Most of them grows on trees while others can be found growing on a mangrove or a cactus. They grow on those trees so that their aerial roots will be able to absorb atmospheric moisture. They grow on trees for support.

To produce more orchids, insects plays a vital role in pollination. These flowers don't have the factors that lures insects in such as the pollen - to give the insects foods, and not all the species have nectar too! But despite that, insects still loves the orchids. So what makes the insects become lured into the flower? Orchids possess endless beauty, it has enticing scent and can also disguise themselves.

Beauty

Orchids are loved because of its beauty. It has more than 75,000 registered varieties and only few are well-known. It includes the famous Cattleya, Phalaenopsis and Vanda. These varieties and hybrids are the result of a century of developing. Horticulturists made a significant contribution  developing those species.

The orchids being taken care of in gardens are absolutely beautiful, but there are a lot of wild orchids that are a lot more beautiful. 

But to the wild orchids, their beauty is not just something to be admires for. The beauty of the wild orchids are what makes them attract the pollinators - the insects. Its colorful petal serves as an invitation for the winged visitors - butterflies, wasps, bees and hummingbirds. 

But beauty is not all they offer to invite the visitors. They also have irresistible scent that no pollinator can resist.

Scent.

Generally, the overall vision of insects are not that sharp, and as a result there is a possibility that they pass by a beautiful flower without even noticing it. This is why flowers needs to have irresistible smell or scents and this is what orchids possess - they have the scents that even resemble the scent of female insects. According to some, there are even insects that smells like a female wasp, and it smells more like a wasp than the wasp itself!

But not all orchids has a subtle scent. There are some varieties of orchids that smells like decaying matter and surely, no wasps, bee or butterfly will like it. But such scent is what lures in the flies, which also serves as pollinators.

But if their beauty and scent is not enough. They use clever mimicry to lure in the pollinators.

Mimicry

There are orchids that looks like an insect from afar, gently swaying with the wind. When bees sees it, they will become angry and will swoop at the orchids to drive them away. Only to become fooled and becomes an agent for pollination instead.

But there are also varieties of orchids that doesn't look like an enemy, but a friend instead. The Ophrys genus looks like a bee and smells like a bee as well. Male bees are lured in thinking that it is a female bee only to find out late - when the pollen are already stuck to its body.

Looking back my late grandmother was a big fan of orchids. She loves collecting different kinds of orchids, but she loves Vandas the most. My uncle inherited my granma's love for orchids, he even buys it even of it costs a lot.

The last time I visited my granny (my mom's mom), I saw blooming orchids and I thought of taking photos so I can share it here!