A comprehensive guide to orchids: understanding orchids in one article

       Orchids belong to the family Orchidaceae. They are monocotyledonous plants and perennial herbs. They are 20-40 cm tall, with long tubular roots. Leaves grow in clusters from the stem base, are linear-lanceolate, slightly leathery, and 2 to 3 form a bundle. Orchids are a traditional famous flower of China and a flower known for its fragrance. With their distinctive leaves, flowers, and fragrance, orchids uniquely possess the Four Pure Qualities (pure qi, pure color, pure spirit, pure charm), giving people an image of great purity and elegant beauty. Famous people past and present have held them in very high regard, and they are likened to the gentleman among flowers. Among ancient literati, the beauty of poetry and prose was often compared to “orchid writing,” true friendship to an “orchid bond,” and a good friend to an “orchid guest.”

Morphological characteristics. Orchidaceae includes 750 genera and more than 35,000 species, while the genus Cymbidium has more than 70 species. Commonly cultivated species in China include:

Four Seasons Famous Flower, Cymbidium goeringii (Spring Orchid): Also called grass orchid, mountain orchid, and duoduo xiang. One stem bears 1-2 flowers, fragrant. Flowering period is February-March. It is mainly distributed in the Yangtze River basin and southwestern China. Traditional precious varieties include Songmei, Longzi, and others. A variety is the linear-leaved spring orchid, with finer leaves and dark green flowers, either unscented or lightly fragrant. Also called grass orchid, mountain orchid, and duoduo xiang. One stem bears 1-2 flowers, fragrant. Flowering period is February-March. It is mainly distributed in the Yangtze River basin and southwestern China.

Traditional precious varieties include Songmei, Longzi, and others. A variety is the linear-leaved spring orchid, with finer leaves and dark green flowers, either unscented or lightly fragrant. National Treasure, Cymbidium faberi (Hui Orchid): Also called jiuzi lan and summer orchid. One stem bears many flowers, usually 6-12, fragrant. Flowering period is March-May. Its distribution area is similar to that of the spring orchid. Traditional famous varieties include Shanghai Mei, Jiepei Mei, Jinao Su, and others.

Ecological characteristics

Perennial herbaceous plant. Roots are fleshy and thickened, without root hairs, and have symbiotic fungi. It has pseudobulbs, commonly called lu tou, covered on the outside with leaf sheaths; often multiple pseudobulbs of variety 1 are connected together and exist in rows at the same time. Leaves are linear or sword-shaped, leathery, upright or drooping. Flowers are solitary or in racemes, with many bracts borne on the pedicel. Flowers are bisexual and fragrant. The corolla consists of 3 sepals, 3 petals, and the column. The middle sepal is called the main petal. The lower 2 are secondary petals; the extent to which the secondary petals spread is called hu. The upper 2 petals are upright, relatively thick and fleshy, with tips curled inward, commonly called pong. The lower 1 is the lip, relatively large, commonly called lan sun. After maturity it is brown, and the seeds are tiny and powdery.

Spring orchids and Hui orchids are divided by differences and variations in the shape, texture, and other features of the main petal, secondary petals, pong, and lip into plum petals, narcissus petals, lotus petals, butterfly petals, rare types, and pure-heart types, and so on. Plum petals have short, rounded sepals, relatively thick and fleshy, slightly curved inward, with a narrow base; the pong petals are fleshy and thick, with tips curved inward to form a pocket; the lip is short and hard, slightly upward when the flower first opens. Famous varieties include Songmei, Xishenmei, and others. Narcissus petals have sepals slightly longer than those of plum petals, with tips gradually pointed; the pong petals are thick in texture, with tips also forming a pocket; the lip hangs slightly or curls backward. Famous varieties include Wangzi, Cuiyipin, and others. Tea petals have broad, large sepals, thick in texture, narrow at the base, with broad and sharply pointed tips; the pong petals do not form a pocket; the lip is relatively moist and slightly curled backward. Famous varieties include Dafugui, Cuigaihua, and others. Butterfly petals have the inner side of the two downward sepals thickened in texture, forming wavy wrinkles, and have red patches; sometimes the number of sepals or petals suddenly increases (such as in Lvyun, whose corolla often has about 8 parts), or the flower shape has special changes. Pure-heart types have the perianth, flower stem, and bracts of the same color, pure green, yellow-green, and so on, without variegated markings of mixed colors, yellow-green, and so on, without markings of mixed colors of variety 2. Precious varieties include Zhanghesu, Laowentiansu, and others.