A year of my nature hunting: Day 337

Saturday, 17 October 2015

Day 337 - Orsome Orchids

Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera)

Bee Orchid and dew

Hey everyone today's Day 337 and today I thought I would revisit the things that aren't just one single species. So, in the past I have covered a lot of different types of flowers on my blog such as the Bee Orchid, I've even done a whole post on Spring Flowers, back when it was Spring of course. But today, I'm kind of going back to the Bee Orchid's family. Yes, all of what are named: Orchids. These are one of the most beautiful family of flowers that I know, more so as they're sometimes quite rare.

I've seen a few different types on my nature hunts so I thought it was worth doing a post one them, especially as they are quite colourful on what has been quite a grey day around here.

So, here are the facts:

The reason that they are called Orchids is because their latin name is Orchidacea. We have changed it to Orchid.

Common Orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii)

Now, they are all quite rare but there are so many different types of Orchid in the world. There are 25,000 different types!

All of these thousands of Orchid types all have symmetry similar to the human face. If you find an Orchid, it has bilateral symmetry.

Orchids have been around for millions of years. Scientists have found fossilised orchid pollen on the back of a bee.

I found quite a few of these

There is actually such a thing called an owl orchid which looks, to me at least, identical to an owl. I saw a picture of it and I thought it was an actual Snowy Owl. They're incredible!