Amazing Orchids from South East Asia

All of these pictures were taken with my new Canon EOS Rebel in March this year, which is one of the best times to visit Thailand if you are planning a trip to both the North and South.

This trip started with Bangkok for a few days, then on the night train up to Chiang Mai in the North where these orchid photographs were taken, before heading down to Phuket.

The Chiang Mai Orchid farm is just outside the city, and is featured in many trips and tours in the region. Our trip started at the elephant orphanage, took in some long necked tribal women, before finishing up at the orchid and butterfly farm.

Chiang Mai was also just 100 miles from the epicenter of a rather sizable 6.7 earthquake which hit later that day. Fortunately,after a long day of traveling and photographing orchids and elephants, I was laying down being massaged with aromatic essential oils at the time the quake hit.

I can strongly recommend doing the same during an earthquake. It has a very calming effect! So much so that I didn't even notice the quake, and only found out about it by reading on the internet later that evening, but I digress. Back to the orchids.

Orchids, or orchidaceae, take their name from the Greek word for testicle. In case you are wondering now about the weird shape of the testicles of the ancient Greeks, I should point out that the name was given due to the the shape of the roots, which apparently resemble cojones. Aside from testis-shaped roots, orchids have 3 petals and 3 sepals, although the sepals look remarkably like petals, and nothing at all like testicles.

Orchids are a highly numerous family of flowering plants with over 26,000 known species. To put this into perspective, that's more than the number or birds or the number of mammals. Despite their numbers however, their origins are not particularly well understood. They have been frequently classified and reclassified over the years, with taxonomists never entirely sure where they should be placed in the grand scheme of things. There is virtually no fossil record of the plants, so studies of their origin are somewhat tricky. According to the APG III system of 2009, and notably the painstaking work of Robert Louis Dressler, orchids are now classified in the pic below.

The orchidaceae familily is further split into 22 tribes, then there are 70 sub-tribes, and 850 genera, and estimates suggest that there could well be at least 30,000 species. Sadly, due to the rate of deforestation and man's destruction of their natural habitat, we can be pretty certain that many orchid species will become extinct before they are even discovered.

Orchids, it has to be said, are diverse but so too is their habitat. While they are commonly regarded as a tropical flower, they have been found in places as remote as the Himalayas, North of the Arctic Circle, and in southerly Islands between Argentina and Antarctica. It is only in Antarctica that orchids cannot be found. Most Orchid species however are tropical, and can be found throughout Asia, and South and Central America. Orchids live on other plants, in soil such as other flowering plants, and even entirely underground.

The orchids photographed in this hub are epiphytes, the name given to plants that live on other plants. This group is the most numerous in the orchid family and these beautiful flowering plants are most often found high up in the tree canopy, wrapped around the spreading branches of trees.

Are Orchids parasites? Many gardeners will disagree, and the matter is often debated, however in a parasitism lecture as part of my degree i remember being told about the parasitic nature of orchids. They are parasitic, but not how many people think.

Some of the orchid family, in particular those which live underground, are believed to tap into the roots of trees and derive some nourishment from them. Most orchid species however are not parasitic, and while orchids may live on trees high up in the canopy it's just a place to live and get lots of sunlight. Orchids are not believed to gain any nourishment from the tree itself.

However.......

Orchids are parasites in the first stage of their life just after germination. Because the seeds rarely have cotyledons (a food supply), in order to grow they need some help and can only germinate and get so far. Orchids get the food they need from mycorrhizal fungi which infect the seeds. Some orchids will not even germinate if they have not been attacked by the fungus.

Are orchids parasites? the answer is therefore yes, as they are parasites on the fungus, but not on the tree or plant on which they live.

However, the fungus is a parasite on the plant. Therefore the orchid gains some nourishment from the tree, albeit through a third party. It is interesting that while fungi are a plants worst nightmare, the orchids at least, have used them to their advantage.

Growing orchids can be difficult as the conditions they require are quite specific, and since they are mostly tropical plants, they need tropical conditions, certainly if they are to flower. Getting them to flower even with ideal conditions can be tricky, and is a long winded process.

After the care taken growing these plants and flowers over around 4-5 years, you may find that your orchids never flower at all. They are fussy, and hate re-potting and will usually punish you for it by refusing to flower for a year afterwards. Even professional and highly skilled gardeners struggle to grow orchids. Beginners should stick with the varieties which are fairly easy going such as Cattleya or Paphiopedilum.

You can find out more on growing orchids on gardeners.com, but here is how they do it in Thailand:

• Mix up your fertilizer carefully according to the above spec and leave your seeds to germinate in it for a month

• Take a pint liquor bottle. Drink the liquor. Then clean the bottle. Fill it about an eighth full of agar and pop in your germinated seed with a little water and pop on the top. Leave in a warm sunny place for a year. 12 hours light / 12 hours dark required, temp of about 28ºC / 82ºF

• After a year, put the bottle underwater and smash it. Take out your orchid and plant it in a handful of charcoal

• 3 years on and your orchid plant should have grown nicely and should start to produce flowers in the 4th year, albeit poor quality flowers.

• In the 5th year you should have some beautiful orchid flowers, provided you have kept the environment as close to tropical conditions. If not, you will have an orchid that may refuse to flower. Feel free however to punish it by re-potting it.

All of the photographs on this hub were taken with Canon EOS Rebel T1i.

I got mine from Amazon and had it shipped over here. I love it, and the starter pack you get is great for macros, portraits and landscapes, although you'll probably want to get a telephoto lens before long, as for distance shots the included lens isn't enough.

Photography can be a bottomless pit into which you could quite easily throw all your cash into, but pick up a UV filter, a memory card, carry case and a long lens, and that should do the job and be all you need. Well, until you get hooked on photography.

if you are looking to get a new camera, or trade up from a point and shoot compact, this one comes highly recommended.