The Century-Long Scientific Journey of the Affordable Grocery Store Orchid

The Orchidaceae are a diverse and widespread family of flowering plants, with blooms that are often colorful and fragrant, commonly known as the orchid family.

Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering plants. The Orchidaceae have about 28,000 currently accepted species, distributed in about 763 genera. The determination of which family is larger is still under debate, because verified data on the members of such enormous families are continually in flux. Regardless, the number of orchid species nearly equals the number of bony fishes and is more than twice the number of bird species, and about four times the number of mammal species. 

The family encompasses about 6–11% of all seed plants. It also includes Vanilla – the genus of the vanilla plant, the type genus Orchis, and many commonly cultivated plants such as Phalaenopsis and Cattleya. Moreover, since the introduction of tropical species into cultivation in the 19th century, horticulturists have produced more than 100,000 hybrids and cultivars. 

This week, a look at the century-long scientific journey of the affordable grocery store orchid.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "[Memory is] a man's real possession...In nothing else is he rich, in nothing else is he poor." - Alexander Smith (Scottish essayist and poet, 1830 - 1867)
 
The Century-Long Scientific Journey of the Affordable Grocery Store Orchid by fredwine on Scribd