The Kinky, Kinky Orchid

Orchids are not just beautiful, they are downright peculiar. Orchids arose late in the evolutionary time-table. Named after the Latin word for "Testicle", Orchis, after the appearance of the roots of certain species, the plants were used medicinally to treat sexual problems in ancient times.

Orchids are distinguished by fused sexual parts combining the male and female parts into a single column. Botanists claim this plant as among the most complex and advanced based on this unusual feature. All plants are classified primarily by their reproductive parts, with the most ancient forms such as magnolias generally featuring simpler, but more numerous sexual parts. By the time the orchids arose, nature had learned to do more with less.

So that is how you tell an Orchid, those fused sexual parts. Look at any orchid from all the ends of the earth and you will see it. And you will need something to tell the members of this multiple and varied family. Contrary to popular thought that banishes them to rainforests and jungles, Orchids are distributed throughout the world in almost every continent and climate zone with the exception of Antarctica. In fact, the temperate climates of New York City and New Jersey host several wild orchids, including the several species of the lady slipper Orchid, genus Cypripedium. Stranger still, some species are native to frozen tundra and dry grasslands.

Although rare, endangered and protected from removal from the wild by law, the author has seen these plants growing in the strangest of places, including the heavily contaminated soils sounding an old gas station on the north shore of Long Island.

Orchids pop up everywhere, not just in the soil of old gas stations, but in the kitchen of every good baker. Real vanilla comes from the "bean" of the vanilla orchid, actually no bean at all, but a long, seed-containing fruit.

Orchids may be terrestrial, that is rooted in soil like most plants or ephiphytic, that is growing attached to the trunks of trees, hanging in the air, with roots sticking straight into the moisture-laden air of the tropics. Such epiphytic orchids or air plants share this trait with bromeliads like Spanish moss or succulent air plants like kalanchoe and bryophyllum.

As I said before, Orchids are weird and off-the-wall. How weird? Well, how many plants are pollinated by copulating insects? Some orchids are. There flowers precisely mimic the look and scent of an insect's beau and convince the love-lorn suitor to propagate the orchid instead of himself. The Australian tongue orchids, Cryptostylis erecta and Cryptostylis leptochila are both pollinated by deceived Orchid Dupe wasps Lissopimpla excelsa. Like many other wasp and ant species, this species can reproduce by parthenogenesis or "virgin birth" but the offspring will all be female.

Copulating insects are just one of a host of strange pollinators that also include hummingbirds and moths. Forget about the birds and the bees. Orchids do them one better: bees, moths, hummingbirds...

Orchids don't just have odd relationships with insects, but with the very soil they grow in. Many orchids are completely unable to grow unless soil contains specific microorganisms called mycorrhizae that have co-evolved with them. If these orchids are removed from their native environments, not just the soil, but the delicate microorganisms in the soil must also go with them. The orchids have evolved in a form of mutualism where these microorganisms replace root hairs normally seen in plants. Root hairs are intimately involved in nourishing and watering the plant, but in orchids, that important role is filled by the fungus.

No wonder orchids are a favorite of lovers everywhere. They lead by example.

Sources:
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Cypripedium
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/features/20080509-17905.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/parthenogenesis
http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/generalbotany/typesofroots/