by Joao Paulo Narita

Created on: February 03, 2009   Last Updated: February 12, 2010

Orchids can be found in many regions of the world, however, they are mainly found in South America's rainforests. This plant group comprises a botany family named Orchidaceae, and there are about twenty-eight thousand descript species, and a big quantity of hybrids. This family is one of the largest botany families in the world. They produce attractive flowers, with several different colors that awake the interest of many people around the world, and they are used very much to ornament gardens.

Nowadays, a large portion of the commercialized orchids is hybrids (crossing of different species). Some species utilized are Cattleya spp., Laelia spp., Dendrobium spp., and Phalenopsis spp. These species are common in tropical regions, but there are orchids that adapt to cold regions. The orchids can be terrestrial, which grow up at the dirt, and epiphyte, growing on the upper branches and stems. The latter is the substrate where the majority of orchids live naturally and develop better.

The seed needs a special condition to germinate. the seed has not a nutrients store tissue, so it must associate with a fungi, which provides a symbiotic association. The flower of the orchid shows three sepals and three petals. However, the flower shows a differentiated petal called labellum. This diffrent petal provides an important function to the plant. The labellum is very important because it is an attractive structure to the pollinators and it facilitates the pollination. 

About your cultivation, first it is time to choose the best place to put the orchid. This plant needs illumination during the morning or in the afternoon. Do not put the plant in a place where has sun directly, because a direct illumination can do harm to the leafs, for example, burn. Orchids like humid environments. Gardens are wetter than environments without many plants and with impermeable floor. Each species has it own flower period. Usually the flowers appear once a year, but there are fertilizers that enlarge the times.

The orchids can be planted in an earthen flowerpot or in a plastic pot. These pots must have some gaps to the water flows down. The size of the pot must not be large, because it turns difficult the drain, and consequently the orchid's roots turn putrefy. Thus the substrate that the plant will be planted must has air spaces between the particles, because the roots need a little air to develop, and it does not bear flooded soils. If the roots of the orchid

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