Sunday, January 28, 2018

Orchids 3



It's January again.  

Which means the only flowers to be had are inside orchids.  

Luckily they are very beautiful.  

And seem to have almost infinite variety.  

In fact, they are one of the two largest families of flowering plants.  
So what's the largest?  Astors!  Which includes daisies, sunflowers, mums and even dandelions.


Since asteraceae's have a worldwide distribution, and orchids only grow in tropical and subtropical regions, the former have a definite advantage in terms of numbers.  

But not age.  


Orchids date back to the Late Cretaceous period - 76 to 84 million years ago. 


No wonder they look so gnarly. :-)


Previous posts of orchids ...



Cheers!
PJ

(c) 2018 PJ Lehrer


 
 
 
 


  



 
 
 

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