The Addiction Of Collecting Orchids

The Addiction Of Collecting Orchids

The Addiction Of Collecting Orchids

The addiction and fascination of orchid collecting goes back 100's of years, when they were hunted in the wild. Orchids are believed to be the most highly evolved and second largest variety of flowering species on the planet.

Nobody has yet been able to define the reason for the attraction that orchids have for people. It is known however, that orchids provoke passion, more often than romance.

Many believe there are around 30,000 known species. Over 100,000 hybrids and cultivars have been developed by dedicated orchid lovers.

Orchids range from the tiniest microscopic to huge flowers as big as footballs. Some petals are rigid and rubbery as inner tubes of a tyre, while others are soft as powder. Still others have the feel of human flesh.

Orchids are outrageously extravagant in their colours, which rangefrom mottled, freckled, veiny or solid, to nearly neon spotless white. However, no one has yet produced or discovered a black orchid.

Some orchids look as if they are the result of an accident involving paint, while others copy the shape of the pollinating insect they are attempting to attract. There are the ultimate ugly flowering orchids, just as there are magnificently beautiful orchids.

Some species of orchids grow underground, such as the Terrestrial Orchid, while others prefer to grow in the ground, or some require no soil at all, happily attached to a tree branch or a rock.

It is thought that orchids evolved first in the tropics, but now they are grown all over the world, in a wide variety of climates.

The name orchid' is a derivative of the Latin word orchids' which means testicle. This refers not only to the fact that it was long believed that the orchid sprang from the spilled semen of mating animals, but to the testicle shaped tubers of the plant. During the Victorian era women were not permitted to collect orchids as they were considered too sensuous.

The international trade in orchids is estimated to reach far beyond $10 billion a year, with some plants selling for over $25,000. While orchid smuggling is big business, thefts of orchids are not uncommon.

There are orchid doctors and orchid baby-sitters, orchid boarding-houses, besides the usual orchid nurseries. Orchids are big business.

While orchids may have the appearance of being fragile, the plants in fact outlive their collectors.

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