The whimsical king of flowers
Exploring the empire of wildflowers these few weeks, we now reach the most spectacular of them all – orchids. The Chinese philosopher Confucius made one of the earliest known references to this flower.
The rose may be called queen of flowers, and cultivated extensively. But for sheer range and variety, the orchid is supreme. It could well be the King – kind of a whimsical but spectacular one nonetheless.
Over the past two centuries, more explorations were made into the steamy tropics on orchid hunts than for any other botanical interest. Some of these expeditions are legendary tales of adventure, even competition.
The orchid’s exoticness made it a topic of immense ornamental value, an object of desire for the wealthy. Over time, realising the immense threats to wild orchids, collection and export came under strict control and was even banned in parts. Orchid banks and botanical gardens have since created nearly three times as many varieties of hybrids or cultivars than there are wild species. And mind you, there are nearly 28,000 species of wild orchid to begin with.
Roughly 5% of the world’s orchids grow in India, about 1,300 or so species, mostly across northeastern India and the southern half of the Western Ghats.
There are wild-growing orchids in the Mumbai region too. A study by some of my project team members between 2008 and 2010 reported about 22 species across the metropolitan region, while some 15 kinds were found in the national park during a more recent survey.
Several orchids in this region bloom in late-summer and earlymonsoon, but some terrestrial varieties bloom now on the hills.
The orchid flower has far overshadowed the plant, a herb with simple leaves. Nearly two-thirds of the orchid diversity is epiphytic (plants that grow on others). In lush canopy, and along often mossy branches and stems, such orchids sprout amid organic richness, forming luxuriant growth as their hanging roots absorb moisture from the atmosphere. The others are terrestrial, growing on the ground, amid moist soil.
We have both kinds in the Mumbai region; including some quaint-looking flowers seen mostly on hilly tracts and plateaus these few weeks.
Finding orchids in the wild can be challenging and require effort. But observe a flower up close and you will see one of the three petals takes a lip-like form. This is the labellum and yields that unique personality to different orchids, some of which appear like spiders, frogs, insects and birds. Hence several kinds have such peculiar names as Spider, Foxtail and Frog orchid.
Troubled across much of their tropical range, the Mumbai region is as good an example as any of how this unique family of blooms is becoming increasingly difficult to come by.