noun
definition
A plant of the orchid family (Orchidaceae), bearing unusually-shaped flowers of beautiful colours.
definition
A light bluish-red, violet-red or purple colour.
Examples of orchids in a Sentence
Orchids of countless varieties abound.
Orchids are very prominent among a great variety of flowering plants.
Orchids are also collected for export in the districts of Garanhuns and Timbauba.
Buttercups, violets, anemones, spring beauties, trilliums, arbutus, orchids, columbine, laurel, honeysuckle, golden rod and asters are common wild flowers, and of ferns there are many varieties.
As in the IndoMalayan sub-region, epiphytic orchids are probably most numerous in point of species, but the genera and even sub-tribes are far more restricted in their range than in the Old World; 4 sub-tribes with 74 genera of Vandeae are confined to South America, though varying in range of climate and altitude.
Tropical orchids are mostly epiphytal - that is, they grow upon trees without deriving nourishment from them.
The economic uses of orchids are not remarkable.
Ground orchids and tree orchids are well represented; Polystachya liberica, an epiphytic orchid with sprays of exquisite small flowers of purple and gold, might well be introduced into horticulture for its beauty.
In other orchids movements take place in different ways and in other directions.
This fact will account for the profusion with which some orchids, like the common bee orchis for instance, are found in some seasons and their scarcity in others.
In most orchids the only stamen developed to maturity is the posterior one of the three opposite to the lip (anterior before the twisting of the ovary), the other two, as well as all three inner ones, being entirely absent, or present only in the form of rudiments.
This arrangement may be understood by reference to the following diagram, representing the relative position of the stamens in orchids generally and in Cypripedium.
Effective pollination may also occur between flowers of different species, or occasionally, as in the case of several orchids, of different genera - this is known as hybridization.
Then, there are the mangrove-fringed coasts and the dripping wooded slopes where rare orchids thrive, and above these, on the inland side of the sierra, a treeless, sun-scorched table-land where only the cactus, yucca, and other coarse vegetation of the desert can thrive without irrigation.
While in flower, orchids may with advantage be removed to a drier and cooler situation, and may be utilized in the drawing-room or boudoir.
They also have impressive displays of cowslips, small scabious and devil's-bit scabious and the widest range of orchids on the reserve.
Odontoglossum and Oncidium include some of the best-known cultivated orchids.
Among these some forms, as among the trees, extend much be y ond the tropic and ascend into the temperate zones on the mountains, of which may be mentioned Begonia, Osbeckia, various Cyrtandraceae, Scitamineae, and a few epiphytical orchids.
Among the well-known forest products of this zone are arnotto, jalap, ipecacuanha, sarsaparilla, rubber, orchids and a great variety of gums.
Among indigenous fruit-bearing trees, shrubs and vines the state has the bird cherry, black cherry, blueberry, cranberry, raspberry, blackberry, gooseberry, strawberry, grape and black currant; and conspicuous among a very great variety of shrubs and flowering plants are the rose, dogwood, laurel, sumac, holly, winterberry, trilliums, anemones, arbutuses, violets, azaleas, eglantine, clematis, blue gentians, orange lilies, orchids, asters and golden rod.
This is the case with many of our roses, dahlias, begonias, pelargoniums, orchids and other long or widely cultivated garden plants.
For stove and greenhouse plants, orchids, ferns, &c., labels made of xylonite, zinc and other materials are also used.
Beautiful terrestrial orchids, requiring to be planted in peat soil, in a cool and rather shady situation.
The following is a select list of genera of miscellaneous decorative plants (orchids, palms and ferns excluded; climbers are denoted by *; bulbous and tuberous plants by f) Stove Plants.
Indeed the composts now used are varied considerably according to the particular group of orchids.
To keep a valuable collection of orchids in good condition requires the services of an expert orchid grower.
David, who spent some time in the Albert Edward district, that the creature dwells in the most dense parts of the primeval forest, where there is an undergrowth of solid-leaved, swamp-loving plants, such as arum, Donax and Phrynium, which, with orchids and climbing plants, form a thick and confused mass of vegetation.
In the low brushwood scattered over portions of the dreary plains of the Kandahar table-lands, we find leguminous thorny plants of the papilionaceous sub-order, such as camel-thorn (Hedysarum Alhagi), Astragalus in several varieties, spiny rest-harrow (Ononis spinosa), the fibrous roots of which often serve as a tooth-brush; plants of the sub-order Mimosae, as the sensitive mimosa; a plant of the rue family, called by the natives lipdtd; the common wormwood; also certain orchids, and several species of Salsola.
Among the more beautiful of the flowering plants are rhododendrons, orchids and .pitcher-plants - the latter reaching extraordinary development, especially in the northern districts about Kinabalu.
Flowering plants include numerous species of terrestrial orchids, the socalled arum lily (Richardia Africana), common in low-lying moist land, and the white everlasting flower, found abundantly in some regions of Cape Colony.
Other ferns, Scitamineae, orchids and climbing Aroideae are very numerous, the last named profusely adorning the forests with their splendid dark-green foliage.
Epiphytal orchids are extremely numerous between 6000 and 8000 ft.
Orchids and aloes are common.
As late as the year 1900 Mr Albert Millican, while collecting orchids on the Opon river, a tributary of the Magdalena between Bogota and the Caribbean coast, was attacked by hostile Indians, and one of his companions was killed by a poisoned arrow.
The imports include wheat flour, rice, barley, prepared foods, sugar, coal, kerosene, beer, wines and liquors, railway equipment, machinery and general hardware, fence wire, cotton and other textiles, drugs, lumber, cement, paper, &c., while the exports comprise coffee, bananas, hides and skins, tobacco, precious metals, rubber, cabinet woods, divi-divi, dye-woods, vegetable ivory, Panama hats, orchids, vanilla, &c.
Colvillia racemosa, with yellow flowers; Astrapaea Wallichii, striking attention from its abundant flowers; and species of Cryptostegia, a purple-flowered creeper, and Strongylodon, another creeper with cream-coloured blossoms. Among attractive plants are species of Hibiscus, Euphorbia, Buddleia, Ixora, Kitchingia, Clematis, &c. On the east coast two orchids, species of Angraecum, with large white waxy flowers, one with an extraordinarily long spur or nectary, attract the attention of every traveller during June and July by their abundance and beauty.
Sometimes the twisting of a part makes a change in the position of other parts, as in Orchids, where the twisting of the ovary changes the position of the labellum.
In some corollas the two lips become hollowed out in a remarkable manner, as in calceolaria, assuming a slipper-like appearance, similar to what occurs in the labellum of some orchids, as Cypripedium.
In orchids each of the pollen-masses has a prolongation or stalk (caudicle) which adheres to a prolongation at the base of the anther (rostellum) by means of a viscid gland (retinaculum) which is either naked or covered.
The term clinandrium is sometimes applied to the part of the column in orchids where the stamens are situated.
In some orchids, as Cypripedium, the pollen has its ordinary character of separate grains.
These include heath bedstraw, lesser stitchwort, yellow bartsia, tormentil cross-leaved heath and spotted orchids.
The herbs include pignut, adder's-tongue, ribwort plantain, and red clover with yellow rattle, bulbous buttercup and orchids.
Then come the early purple orchids and Goldilocks buttercups.
Plants present in the grassland include pignut, harebell, kidney vetch and several orchids including greater butterfly orchid.
In spring and early summer wild flowers bloom everywhere; the forests host dainty wild cyclamen, with wild orchids scattered here and there.
The roadside flowers were attractive and we saw our first Cretan cyclamen as well as Giant and Yellow Bee orchids.
Nearby are his greenhouses, now much dilapidated, where once he grew his prize orchids.
Serenata Flowers offer flowers and bouquets ideal for Mothers Day gifts including freesias, lillies, orchids, roses and tulips.
Hay cutting and carefully managed grazing produces a rich floral assemblage including gentians and orchids.