A Trek Around the Earth with Orchids

Of all of earth’s flowers, orchids are especially fascinating. Not only are they beautiful to look at, but they often bring a bit of wonder and mystery with them. Although distributed widely, many can only be found in isolated or exotic locations–misty rain forests, the sides of volcanoes, mucky swamps, for examples.

Beginning in earnest in the 19th century, orchid fanciers have devoted years and whole lifetimes to discovering as well as breeding new varieties of these flowering delights. Although most orchids are acquired these days from nurseries that specialize in cultivating these plants, many of them being developed through hybridization, it is advantageous to understand a little of their origins in nature.

Orchids are herbacious plants encompassing tens of thousands of known species, with still more being discovered.They show an astouding range of color and shape, which has added greatly to public fascination with them. Gardeners often take pleasure in maintaining a wide variety of orchids to show off their mastery of the art of cultivation.

Orchids grow everywhere in the earth except for the desert and polar regions. About 85% of species occur in tropical or subtropical regions, but this leaves a huge number that may be found in much cooler zones. In some parts of the Himalayas orchids constitute the most abundantly represented family of plants in terms of sheer number of species.

By far the greatest number of orchids occur in three large tropical belts:

• Tropical Africa (including islands to the east in the Indian Ocean). These largely belong to the genera (families) Angnecum, Bulbophyllum and Disa. Orchids from this region are not so widely cultivated as ones coming originating in other tropical lands, but Africa nonetheless has many interesting species.
• Tropical Asia. This region, which covers Indonesia and other islands, along with mainland Southeast Asia, is particularly rich in orchid genera. Typical of the region are the large genera Dendrobium, Eria and Bulbophyllum and many smaller ones as well.
• Tropical America. This region includes most of South America, along with Mexico and Central America. Isolated from other parts of the world for eons, this region has an especially large number of endemic genera of orchids, many of which include hundreds of species. Among the large indigenous genera are Epidendrum, Pleurothallis and Oncidium; many smaller genera found here also contribute more than their share to orchids that have found favor among cultivators the world over.

In the temperate zones of the southern hemisphere may also be found many orchds, though not in so abundant number as in the tropics. In southern Africa the Disa and Calanthe genera furnish a few species judged valuable to cultivation. Australia contains many genera in common with the tropical Asia. Southern South America boasts a number of temperate orchids, but by the estimation of orchid devotees, they are greatly overshadowed by those
from the much larger tropical part of thecontinent.

in the norhern hemisphere’s temperate areas, we should take note of the United States, particularly the New England/norhteastern region, as well as Canada. There we find about 20 native genera, whose member species grow mostly in swamps and moist grounds. The Cypripediuins, or Lady Slippers, are the most famous of these.

Europe also has many native orchids, but undoubtedly the most famous and showy is the Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera). The Bee Orchid grows on dry or semi-dry turf, often in open areas within woodlands. Bee Orchids are common near the Mediterranean coast of Europe, and grows (albeit less abundantly) as far north as Germany and the UK.

Orchids differ greatly from one another as far as ease of cultivating, but most of them are not the difficult plants that common wisdom would have it. The most up-to-date guide to modern orchid growing, it is widely acknowedged, is Orchid Care Expert by Nigel Howard, which is available to be downloaded from the Internet. Mr. Howard’s ebook is a complete course in itself, suitable for neophytes as well as the more experienced. Also, check out the Orchid Secrets web site, which has an ever-growing library of postings on many facets of orchid cultivation.

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