Voice: Jim Cocos
Resource: Talking Orchid script, Bulletin articles, 2005 and 2006 Orchid Show brochures, Public Relations fact sheet
I’m Jim Cocos, Vice President of Horticulture. Orchids are the largest family of flower plants in the world, with some 30 to 35,000 species. That’s nearly 10 percent of all flowering plants!
They grow on every continent except Antarctica. About 200 orchid species grow in North America. Thousands more grow in tropical countries. More than 3,500 species are found in Ecuador and more than 1,300 in Costa Rica.
Some orchid plants are less than an inch tall with flowers the size of a pinhead. Others grow up to 40 feet tall, with flowers almost a foot wide.
Orchids that grow on the ground absorb moisture and nutrients from the soil through their roots. Others grow on tree trunks or branches for support and never touch the ground. They have adapted to grow where water and nutrients are limited. A spongy covering on their roots helps soak up moisture.
Some orchids have roots that grow upwards, forming a basket to catch leaves and other debris that fall from the treetops.
Many orchids are incredibly fragrant, but not all of them smell sweet! Some smell musty and others actually stink. There’s a good reason for this – a strong scent attracts pollinators. Bees, flies, moths, butterflies, wasps, birds and beetles carry pollen from one flower to another. For an orchid to produce seeds, it must receive pollen from another orchid of the same species.
An orchid fruit can contain up to a million seeds! The seeds are as small as a speck of dust, and weigh almost nothing, so they are easily blown by the wind. That’s how they spread from one place to another.
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