The Orchid

Unless you're an avid gardener or amateur horticulturalist, your day-to-day experience with the plant kingdom probably doesn't exceed trampling over some grass and cutting through a flower garden on your way to school or work each morning.  You may have heard of the venus flytrap, a carnivorous herb which catches and digests insects using trigger hairs which cause a chemical reaction that rapidly closes the trap's "jaws" around its unsuspecting prey.  But did you know that an ornamental plant often sold in supermarkets is capable of much more incredible feats?  In fact, this species is so complex that it took botanists hundreds of years to figure out how to germinate it outside of its natural environment, and yet it is the source of vanilla extract; the most common flavoring used in baking today.  Prized by many for its beauty, but by few for its uncanny intelligence, this plant is none other than the orchid.

Did you know?

Orchids produce the lightest seed in the world, weighing in at approximately a millionth of a gram.  The seeds do not contain albumen, which is the nutritive substance found in most seeds that help them begin growth.  Thus, scientists originally believed the orchid seed to be sterile, before discovering that they required the presence of a particular fungus to begin germination.  The word "orchid" actually comes from the Greek "orkhis", meaning "testicle".  A fully-grown ground orchid draws its nutrients from a small bulb-like bulge just beneath the apex of the plant.  When the "bulb" has served its function, it remains beside the new bulge, causing there to be two small "bulbs" at any given time; hence, the name orchid.

Intelligence Mechanisms

A great deal of the orchid's intelligence lies in its innovative methods of pollination.  Unlike most flowers, the orchid's blossom has neither pistils nor stamens, but rather a combination of the two called a gynostemium.  The labellum or lip of the flower often adapts to become more attractive to its pollinators through different means; from housing buckets of sweet perfume to attract amorous males, to mimicking the image and scent of rotting meat to attract flies.  The labellum of the lizard orchid (Himantoglossum hircinum) is long, thin, and twisted, with a forked tip.  Several types of orchid copy the markings and hair placement of female insects to trick males into thinking they've found a mate.  Still other orchids exude nectar down their stems and leaves to attract ants, then provide pseudobulbs to give them a protected home in return for protection from pests.

Did you know?

The Angraceum family of orchids is monophilic, meaning that it can only be pollinated by one species of insect.  In fact, when Charles Darwin discovered a species of this orchid in Madagascar in 1850 (a white nocturnal flower blooming 30cm above the ground), he proposed the existence of a nocturnal insect with the ability to reach and pollinate the flower.  However, such an insect was not known at the time, and most scientists were skeptical.  Fifty years later, the nocturnal hawk moth was discovered; a winged insect with a strange spiral used for drinking nectar hanging off a 30cm "stem" on its head.

Two Worlds

In the beginning, there were Gymnosperms; plants without flowers, consisting almost entirely of trees.  As nature evolved, various flowering species fought for survival until Monocotyledons (monocots) assumed dominance.  Nature ceased developing new species of trees, and monocots divided modern flora into two polar opposites: grasses and orchids.