Orchid

Orchidaceae Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous 80 mya – Recent
From Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Liliopsida
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Orchidaceae Juss.
Subfamilies
Apostasioideae Cypripedioideae Epidendroideae Orchidoideae Vanilloideae

The orchids are a large family of flowering plants, the Orchidaceae. They are herbaceous monocots.

There are between 100,000 and 126,000 species in 880 genera.^[1][2] They make up between 6 and 11% of all seed plants. Orchids can be found in almost every country in the world except for Antarctica.^[3]

People have grown orchids for a number of years. They grow orchids for show, for science, or for food (for example, vanilla).

Some orchids have very special ways of pollination. For example, the Lady's Slipper can trap insects and make them pollinate the flower. Another instance is the Austrian orchid, which grows underground and is pollinated by ants.

Many orchids are myco-heterotrophs, meaning their roots need fungi to break down organic material for them to absorb.

1. ↑ Stevens P.F. 2001 onwards. Angiosperm Phylogeny Website, version 9 Mobot.org
2. ↑ "WCSP". World Checklist of selected plant families.
3. ↑ Dressler, Robert L. (1981). The orchids: natural history and classification. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-87525-8.