Orchid Flowers
We’ve all seen orchids at supermarkets and home stores and wondered if they’re a smart purchase. “Absolutely,” says Marc Hachadourian, curator of Glasshouse Collections for the New York Botanical Garden. “Inexpensive orchids are no less likely to thrive. Just choose a strong, healthy-looking plant.”
Every orchid has a characteristic, highly evolved lip, a petal that protrudes in a blossom of three petals and three sepals, some fused together. • Every orchid has evolved to attract a particular pollinator, which has led to orchids’ enormous variety in appearance. • Orchids are either epiphytic (air-growing) or terrestrial (earth-growing); most tropical orchids are epiphytic. In the wild, epiphytes cling to trees and stumps, drawing moisture from the mist and rain and decomposing leaves.Â