Orchid Species: How to tell?

[ezronz]

Hi there,
Can we actually tell the species of an orchid by just looking at the flower alone? or by looking at it's leaves? Root? Stem? Bulb?

Or the combination of those above?

Cheers

Newbie
Ezronz

[flaorchidfan]

you can usually narrow it down. even as a novice like me i can tell between the phals, dend's, vanda's and such. and i am getting better at it as time goes by and the more i see. do you have one you don't know what is?

[mayres]

I'm not certain if you really mean "species" or not. I myself have a hard time knowing what level of taxonomy I mean to reference when talking types of orchids - levels go like this - Family - Subfamily - Phylad - Tribe - Subtribe - Genus - Species - Variety. For example, when talking species you would have all the following in the same group - Laelia purpurata, Laelia pumila, Laelia anceps, Laelia harpophylla, Laelia rubescens, & Laelia tenebrosa. At this level the plants are closely related - the flowers themselves I believe are the most important here. Within each species there will be experts that can probably narrow things down pretty close by size & shape of the plant itself as well. Once you start talking hybrids some plants are absolutely impossible to accurately type as there are literally several hundred thousand out there and many are similar in many or all characteristics to others. Generally the "type" of orchid is initially classified on a broader level - perhaps the term "alliance" is used, to designate a group of genera that have common characteristics - like phalaenopsis, cattleya, paphiopedelum, cymbidiums, etc. These can be often grouped by folliage alone and then narrowed down further by the flower depending upon which one it might happen to be. Hope this helps some - kind of a broad topic. If you are really interested in the taxonomy of orchids you might take a quick look at the following link to give you an idea of the breadth of what you are talking about - it is the largest family of plants on mother earth! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonom..._Orchid_family

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Taxonomists use the flower parts to define a species. Cynthia

[ezronz]

Thank you very much!

I have more than 20 different types of orchids in my nursery but would you beileve it, I don't even know their names. (Well, I know some are from the genus of vanda, because they are tall, leaves are long and thin).

BTW, I have just planted them about 3 weeks ago so I guess it is impossible to tell their species without their flower. Some of the orchids were given to me by friends and some were bought from shops (who didn't have knowledge about orchids as well). And I have 3 orchids which I took from wild tropical jungle! All are potted on clay pots, with bricks, wood barks, coconut husk chips and charcoal as their ingredients. I am just too excited to see them rooting! To me a blooming orchid is just a bonus because I am more interested to see young orchid growing. Funny eh?

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Many times the first name of orchids, like 'Vanda', can be determined by lookiing at the plant. For hybrids, which is probably the case for all your purchased orchids, we can tell the general family, which should give you a better idea of the required culture. If you can take digital pictures and post then, maybe 2 or 3 at a time, we could help you put some tags in your plants. Then, when they bloom, we may be able to identify them further with the second name that goes on the tag, like Vanda sanderiana, or just Vanda hybrid.

Where are you located? It always helps if you put your general location in your public profile. If you collected orchids in your area, it would be fun to think of what they might be. Cynthia

[Ellen]

You should not be taking orchids from the "wild, tropical jungle". It is human collecting from the wild, along with loss of habitat through development, that causes species to become extinct.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Ellen, don't be too quick to judge. In many places where developement is taking its toll, it is the local citizens and their gardens that are maintaining populations of the native orchids. Cynthia

[ezronz]

Thanks Cynthia.

I come from the island of Borneo and a large are of this island is still covered with virgin jungle though some areas have been developed for oil palm plantation. There are more than a thousand species of orchid found in this island and most of which are found in jungle of Crooker Range with cooler climate (below 70 deg F).

Some of the villagers earn their living by selling young orchids they collected from the jungle in their own land (obviously not from the government forest reserve). A young orchid will cost you as little as a dollar each.

Thank You.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Sounds like you could make quite a collection of just your native orchids. Something to give you a lot of interesting growing. With that many orchid species, I'll bet there are an awful lot of them you haven't even seen yet. Cynthia