Orchid Season Wild & Crazy

It's that time of year again  ....   In  DC, the Smithsonian's Horticultural Services Division and the US Botanic Garden  are hosting the institution's 13th annual orchid exhibit,  "Orchids:  Take a Walk on the Wild Side."  This year's show features 2000 plants, 300 varieties, and is patterned after a "canopy walk," a popular new trend among eco-tourists.  Visitors will have the impression they are actually climbing into treetops to see orchids displayed as they grow in the wild, as epiphytes (living in trees). 

Smithsonian orchid collections manager Tom Mirenda said he hopes the exhibition will "raise awareness of conservation" and underline "the importance of preserving a habitat as well as individual species of plants." 

The show just opened at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and runs through April 22nd.

(image: Smithsonian)

The Orchid Family is one of oldest and largest families of flowering plants, comprised of some 25,000 species growing on every continent except Antarctica.  They are particularly prolific and diverse, of course, in tropical rain forests.

The Smithsonian's Tropical Research Institute in Panama and its Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, MD, have both been working for many years to examine orchids and their habitat. In the early 1990's, STRI scientists pioneered research in tropical tree canopies by using a crane to explore habitats high up in the trees.  Their research contributed to the understanding of processes that affect atmosphere and climate.

At SERC, scientists developed a way to plant and retrieve tiny orchid seedlings in the field.  That method is now widely used by researchers around the world, and it helps identify the specific fungus that each species feeds upon in order to germinate.  Eventually, scientists hope the process will help them re-establish endangered orchids and their necessary fungi in the wild.

Comments

[Timothy Colman, Good Nature]

The orchid show looks beautiful. I should get out to see it next year. One of the artists I work with is Carol Woodin -- and she has exhibited some of her gorgeus watercolors there once or twice.

I have a botanical genius here in Seattle who has literally mapped all the different species of orchids -- he made this large chart that must be 4 feet by 3 feet with names of genus species of every orchid. I will try to photograph it so you see what I am talking about.

Glad I found your site.

best fishes,

Timothy