10 Facts About Today

#30 - Orchids | April 16, 2020

Episode Summary

What does vanilla extract have to do with orchids? Are orchids the oldest known flower? How small is the smallest orchid? Let's find out because today is National Orchid Day.

Episode Notes

Here are 10 germinated facts about orchids that you didn’t know, that you didn’t need to know:

1. Orchids have the tiniest seeds in the world.
   1. Challenge to grow and cultivate. 
   2. Long time to turn into a plant! 
   3. Growing orchids from seeds is only for the patient and very green-thumbed.
   4. only visible under a microscope. 
2. There can be up to 3 million seeds in a single orchid seedpod.
   1.  lack an endosperm and have no nutrients within. 
   2. Underdeveloped embryo
   3. require contact with a particular fungus to germinate It takes patience to grow an orchid.
3. Some Orchid's first flowers won’t appear until 5 to 7 years after germination. 
   1. The houseplants you find in stores are often a decade old.  
4.  Orchids are Bilateral Symmetric
   1. They can be divided into 2 perfectly equal sides
   2. 99% of animals have this
   3. Most plants have radial symmetry
      1. Think sunflowers
5.  Some orchids can live to be 100 years old
   1. That’s when they are in nature, not cut
   2. But cut orchids still outlive most other cut plants
      1. Up to 3 weeks
6.  The flavor Vanilla is extracted from a species of Orchid.
   1. Vanilla planifolia
   2. Extracted from its pod. 
   3. Only commercially grown orchid. 
7.  Orchids are the largest and oldest known family of flowering plant. 
   1. They are found on every continent. 
   2. Suggests they were in existence before the continents split apart. 
8.  There are 25000 different species of orchids. 
   1. 4 times the different species of birds 
   2. 4 times the different species of mammals 
9.  The smallest orchid is the size of a dime. 
10.  Mature orchid plants always grow upside down. 
    1. The weight of the blooming flower causes it to hang down.