Selby Orchid Show

Selby has a Tropical Conservatory where the orchid show was ( I believe it ran until Nov.22).  They still have a goodly amount of orchids on display year around, however.  There are 27,000 species of orchids, which have adapted to life in the trees where they are better positioned to receive light.  Seventy per cent of them are in that category, the other 30 per cent are terrestrial.  I have seen the yellow lady slipper in hikes through wooded areas.  Another terrestrial is pictured below.

Before I go any further I first need to say that I am not all that knowledgeable regarding orchids.  Information in this posting is from interpretive signs in the conservatory.  Pollinators for orchids are bees, butterflies and birds.  One exception is the Darwin's orchid from Madagascar.  In the garden's Museum of Botany and Arts in the Payne mansion (another fascinating place in the park) is on display a moth nearly identical to the subspecies that pollinates that orchid.  It has a long nose to reach down into the flower.  The tiny seed of orchids are dispersed on air currents to suitable germination sites.  Pictured below is King Serendipity, one of the many gorgeous orchids on display.

The theme of this orchid show was "Science and Splendor of Orchids Through the Four Elements of Nature"  A garden docent challenged us to figure it out for ourselves while touring the show.  I could understand water, earth, air- but fire?  We soon discovered that there are some terrestrial orchids that respond well to fires occurring on a regular basis.  Looking at the display (pictured below) with all of its red highlights I immediately got it!  Most of those flowers are not orchids, but the colorful display was a clue to look at the interpretive sign regarding fire and orchids.

From the book The Orchid Thief I learned that in the latter years of the 19th century there were many avid lovers of orchids who traveled to areas heavily populated by the flower and remove them for a variety of reasons.  There is one swamp in the Everglades where this happened.  I have seen an occasional orchid in our tour of swampy areas, maybe there would be more had that not happened.  .