Orchids flourish at Royal Gardens

March 12, 1996
Web posted at: 5:15 p.m. EST

From CNN Correspondent Margaret Lowrie

LONDON (CNN) -- Some of the most colorful and varied works of nature are on display at London's Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, which has the largest known collection of orchids. (170K AIFF sound or 170K WAV sound)

Orchids tend to have a reputation as exotic, exclusive, and expensive. In reality, though, orchids belong to the largest plant family on Earth.

"The tropical orchids are the ones that have this allure and this very romantic reputation," said Sandra Bell of the Royal Botanic Gardens. "But really, I think it does go back 150 years to when they were extremely expensive to buy, and could only be afforded by the very wealthy."

Some 25,000 species of orchids adorn six of the world's seven continents. The flowers are quite at home in Brazilian rain forest and British meadowland alike.

But over-collection and urbanization -- the loss of habitat -- threaten some species with extinction, as do chemicals and pesticides used in land management.

Kew's collection includes some 5,000 species for research, education and conservation. Behind the scenes at the annual orchid festival, botanists work to save endangered orchids through a seed bank to store genetic material, and through seedlings returned to the wild. (111K AIFF sound or 111K WAV sound)

In the laboratory and in nature, orchids display unique characteristics.

So-called "bee orchids" attract bees by looking like bees, while oncydium orchids have a way of inciting potential pollinators. (111K AIFF sound or 111K WAV sound)

Vanilla orchid pods emit a flavorful scent, while the bulbophyllum smells like rotting meat, which works well for it, because it draws flies to pollinate, and thus propagate.

And because, in the wide world of orchidaceae, survival is the name of the game -- the bulbophyllum, along with its fellow orchids, by whatever name, comes out smelling sweet.

Related sites:

• Orchid FAQs
• The Tropical Orchid Society
• Orchid resources on the Net

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