Gardening

What Is An Orchid?

Orchid belongs to the Orchidaceae family. The term orchid comes from the Greek term, “Orkhis” which means testicle as the root has similar shape.There are two views about the dating of the term orchid. One version says that this name has been given by Theophrastus who is considered the father of botany who lived between 370 and 285 BC and another resource says that this term was given to this family of plants in 1845 by John Lindley.There is also a belief that orchids had aphrodisiac properties because of its resemblance with the testicles.

Orchids are considered to be the second largest family of flowering plants. There are around 22,000 to 26,000 accepted species which are distributed amongst 88 genera. One of the most known variety of Orchid that we use extensively is the Vanilla plant.

You can grow orchids in any climate and this plant can survive even harsh conditions. This plant is known for its floral beauty. Most of the orchids grow in Tropical and subtropical climates. The US has the largest variety of orchids in the world.