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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Book of Orchids: A life-size guide to six hundred species from around the world by Mark Chase, Maarten Christenhusz and Tom Mirenda (view source)
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One in seven flowering plants on earth is an orchid: there are 26,000 species in 749 genera. They flourish in remarkable habitats such as deserts and the Arctic circle, in fact all areas but the most inhospitable. There's a wide range of colours, shapes and scents: they're dramatic, delicate and ingenious in the ways that they've developed not just to survive but to thrive. Tom Mirenda describes them as ''masters of manipulation'' and ''famous for lying and cheating their way to their many evolutionary successes'', yet his love of the them is as obvious as his respect for the insight they give us into the processes which shaped our world. He hopes that understanding how that has come about will inspire us to conserve what we have.
No book could include all 26,000 species alive today, so the authors have selected 600 to demonstrate the wide rage of orchid diversity ''and'' to cover all areas of the globe. We begin with an explanation of what an orchid is, how it has evolved from the Late Cretaceous period (that's roughly 76 to 105 million years ago), its pollination and symbiotic relationship with other plants. There are various threats to wild orchids: poaching is one and human consumption another, although you'll be relieved to hear that ''Vanilla planifolia'' is propagated sustainably so you can continue to enjoy your real vanilla ice cream without a guilty conscience. Not all commercial users are as considerate.
