News tagged with orchids
Bees outpace orchids in evolution
(PhysOrg.com) -- Orchid bees aren’t so dependent on orchids after all, according to a new study that challenges the prevailing view of how plants and their insect pollinators evolve together.
Sep 23, 2011 |
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The evolution of orchids
(PhysOrg.com) -- Charles Darwin and many other scientists have long been puzzled by the evolution of orchids, the largest and most diverse family of flowering plants on Earth. Now genetic sequencing is giving ...
Nov 19, 2009 |
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Trading energy for safety, bees extend legs to stay stable in wind
New research shows some bees brace themselves against wind and turbulence by extending their sturdy hind legs while flying. But this approach comes at a steep cost, increasing aerodynamic drag and the power ...
Jun 02, 2009 |
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Fungi-filled forests are critical for endangered orchids
When it comes to conserving the world's orchids, not all forests are equal. In a paper to be published Jan. 25 in the journal Molecular Ecology, Smithsonian ecologists revealed that an orchid's fate hinges ...
Jan 24, 2012 |
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First known night-flowering orchid discovered
Botanists have discovered the first known species of orchid that flowers at night, London's Kew Gardens announced on Tuesday.
Nov 22, 2011 |
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Orchids and fungi: An unexpected case of symbiosis
The majority of orchids are found in habitats where light may be a limiting factor. In such habitats it is not surprising that many achlorophyllous (lacking chlorophyll), as well as green, orchids depend on ...
Jul 12, 2011 |
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Rare orchids mimic fungus to attract flies
(PhysOrg.com) -- In a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Zong-Xin Ren from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Peter Bernhardt from Saint Louis University discus ...
Apr 27, 2011 |
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Orchid wears the scent of death
Sex and violence, or at least death, are the key to reproduction for the orchid Satyrium pumilum. Research led by Timotheüs van der Niet at the University of KwaZulu-Natal shows that the orchid lures ...
Mar 14, 2011 |
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Wealth of orchid varieties is down to busy bees and helpful fungi, says study
Scientists have discovered why orchids are one of the most successful groups of flowering plants - it is all down to their relationships with the bees that pollinate them and the fungi that nourish them. The ...
Jan 31, 2011 |
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Orchid tricks hoverflies: Eastern marsh helleborine mimics aphid alarm pheromones to attract pollinators
Even Darwin was a self-admitted orchid lover. Dictionaries describe orchids as exotic ornamentals. Indeed, these plants – more than 30000 different species are thought to exist – are exotic due their ...
Oct 14, 2010 |
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Ecologists find new clues on climate change in 150-year-old pressed plants
Plants picked up to 150 years ago by Victorian collectors and held by the million in herbarium collections across the world could become a powerful - and much needed - new source of data for studying climate ...
Sep 22, 2010 |
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Common orchid gives scientists hope in face of climate change
A study led by scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew's Jodrell Laboratory, which focuses on epigenetics in European common marsh orchids, has revealed that some plants may be able to adapt more quickly to environmental ...
Aug 10, 2010 |
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First radio tracking of tropical orchid bees
Blue-green orchid bees zip through increasingly scarce patches of tropical forest pollinating rare flowers. For the first time, researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute track unique signals ...
May 26, 2010 |
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New orchid species is discovered in the UC Botanical Garden collection
(PhysOrg.com) -- A Haitian orchid is enjoying celebrity status at the UC Botanical Garden, after scientists discovered that the long-time Garden resident is a distinct new species.
Apr 27, 2010 |
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First known instance of a cricket as an orchid pollinator captured on film (w/ Video)
An orchid researcher based on the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean and collaborating with researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew) has used motion sensitive night cameras to capture the first known occurrence ...
Jan 12, 2010 |
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Orchidaceae
The Orchidaceae, commonly referred to as the orchid family, is a morphologically diverse and widespread family of monocots in the order Asparagales. Along with the Asteraceae, it is one of the two largest families of flowering plants, with between 21,950 and 26,049 currently accepted species, found in 880 genera. Selecting which of the two families is larger remains elusive because of the difficulties associated with putting hard species numbers on such enormous groups. Regardless, the number of orchid species equals more than twice the number of bird species, and about four times the number of mammal species. It also encompasses about 6–11% of all seed plants. The largest genera are Bulbophyllum (2,000 species), Epidendrum (1,500 species), Dendrobium (1,400 species) and Pleurothallis (1,000 species).
The family also includes Vanilla (the genus of the vanilla plant), Orchis (type genus), and many commonly cultivated plants such as Phalaenopsis and Cattleya. Moreover, since the introduction of tropical species in the 19th century, horticulturists have produced more than 100,000 hybrids and cultivars.
For more information about Orchidaceae, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
