What are Orchids?

Nazeer Waris

The orchids are flowering plants belonging to Orchidaceae family which mostly grow in hot and humid conditions. But except deserts, they can grow in every climate.

These flowers are extremely attractive in diverse colours and shapes and are coveted for their ornamental value. This is one of the largest family of plants with around 30,000 species.

More and more of their species are being discovered almost every day. The diversity of colours and shapes of flowers is humongously diverse so much so that everyone can find flowers of their taste.

The orchids can be identified with the symmetry in flowers i.e., two halves of the flower mirror each other. About 14,000 of the orchid species are epiphytes, in that they grow on trees, although they take nothing from the tree except a perch for support.

Epiphytes are mostly found in Mexico, Central and South America, as well as Asia and the Pacific Islands. Terrestrial orchids, or those that grow on the ground, are mostly found in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

The Western Ghats in Karnataka has nearly 300 species of orchids. The hilly regions of north eastern states have a very large number of species of orchids.

India has an orchids sanctuary known as Sessa Orchid Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh which is spread over a 100 square kilometre area in the Himalayan foothills in Bhalukpong Forest Division of West Kamend district.

The hills rise upto 10,000 feet and the rain averages 120 inches annually here. Nearly 200 varieties of orchids grow here.

Manipur has India’s only orchidarium known as Khonghampat Orchidarium. It is a botanical garden in Imphal, the capital of Manipur. It collects, cultivates and preserves orchids.

It displays nearly 500 varieties of orchids, some of them are very rare species. From April to July, a lot of visitors come here to see the orchids in full bloom.