Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae, a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Earth except glaciers. The world's richest diversity of orchid genera and species is found in the tropics.
An inflorescence, in a flowering plant, is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a main axis (peduncle) and by the timing of its flowering.
In cell biology, the meristem is a type of tissue found in plants. It consists of undifferentiated cells capable of cell division. Cells in the meristem can develop into all the other tissues and organs that occur in plants. These cells continue to divide until they become differentiated and lose the ability to divide.
Dendrobium is a genus of mostly epiphytic and lithophytic orchids in the family Orchidaceae. It is a very large genus, containing more than 1,800 species that are found in diverse habitats throughout much of south, east and southeast Asia, including China, Japan, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, New Guinea, Vietnam and many of the islands of the Pacific. Orchids in this genus have roots that creep over the surface of trees or rocks, rarely having their roots in soil. Up to six leaves develop in a tuft at the tip of a shoot and from one to a large number of flowers are arranged along an unbranched flowering stem. Several attempts have been made to separate Dendrobium into smaller genera, but most have not been accepted by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families.
Vegetative reproduction is a form of asexual reproduction occurring in plants in which a new plant grows from a fragment or cutting of the parent plant or specialized reproductive structures, which are sometimes called vegetative propagules.
A raceme or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the shoot grows in height, with no predetermined growth limit. Examples of racemes occur on mustard, radish, and orchid plants.
Phalaenopsis, also known as moth orchids, is a genus of about seventy species of plants in the family Orchidaceae. Orchids in this genus are monopodial epiphytes or lithophytes with long, coarse roots, short, leafy stems and long-lasting, flat flowers arranged in a flowering stem that often branches near the end. Orchids in this genus are native to India, Taiwan, China, Southeast Asia, New Guinea and Australia with the majority in Indonesia and the Philippines.
The waratah (Telopea) is an Australian-endemic genus of five species of large shrubs or small trees, native to the southeastern parts of Australia. The best-known species in this genus is Telopea speciosissima, which has bright red flowers and is the New South Wales (NSW) state emblem. The waratah is a member of the family Proteaceae, flowering plants distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The key diagnostic feature of Proteaceae is the inflorescence, which is often very large, brightly coloured and showy, consisting of many small flowers densely packed into a compact head or spike. Species of waratah boast such inflorescences ranging from 6–15 cm in diameter with a basal ring of coloured bracts. The leaves are spirally arranged, 10–20 cm long and 2–3 cm broad with entire or serrated margins. The name waratah comes from the Eora Aboriginal people, the pre-European inhabitants of the Sydney area.
This page provides a glossary of plant morphology. Botanists and other biologists who study plant morphology use a number of different terms to classify and identify plant organs and parts that can be observed using no more than a handheld magnifying lens. This page provides help in understanding the numerous other pages describing plants by their various taxa. The accompanying page—Plant morphology—provides an overview of the science of the external form of plants. There is also an alphabetical list: Glossary of botanical terms. In contrast, this page deals with botanical terms in a systematic manner, with some illustrations, and organized by plant anatomy and function in plant physiology.
Important structures in plant development are buds, shoots, roots, leaves, and flowers; plants produce these tissues and structures throughout their life from meristems located at the tips of organs, or between mature tissues. Thus, a living plant always has embryonic tissues. By contrast, an animal embryo will very early produce all of the body parts that it will ever have in its life. When the animal is born, it has all its body parts and from that point will only grow larger and more mature. However, both plants and animals pass through a phylotypic stage that evolved independently and that causes a developmental constraint limiting morphological diversification.
Dendrobium nobile, commonly known as the noble dendrobium, is a member of the family Orchidaceae. Dendrobium nobile is one of the most widespread ornamental members of the orchid family. It is the state flower of Sikkim.
Dendrobium loddigesii is a miniature to small sized, warm to cold growing epiphyte, lithophyte or terrestrial orchid that comes from Laos, Vietnam, and China. It is found in humid, mossy, mixed and coniferous forests at elevations of 1000 to 1500 meters, in areas with dry winter and a wet spring and summer. The plant has tufted, pendant, subterete, striated, several-noded, white-sheathed stems carrying alternate, fleshy, oblong, acute leaves.
This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the more specific Glossary of plant morphology and Glossary of leaf morphology. For other related terms, see Glossary of phytopathology, Glossary of lichen terms, and List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names.
Dendrobium bigibbum, commonly known as the Cooktown orchid or mauve butterfly orchid, is an epiphytic or lithophytic orchid in the family Orchidaceae. It has cylindrical pseudobulbs, each with between three and five green or purplish leaves and arching flowering stems with up to twenty, usually lilac-purple flowers. It occurs in tropical North Queensland, Australia and New Guinea.
Dendrobium gracilicaule, commonly known as the blotched cane orchid or yellow cane orchid, is an epiphytic or lithophytic orchid in the family Orchidaceae. It has cylindrical pseudobulbs, between three and seven thin leaves and up to thirty often drooping, cream-coloured to yellow or greenish flowers, sometimes with reddish brown blotches on the back. There are two varieties, one occurring in Queensland and New South Wales and the other on some Pacific Islands, including Lord Howe Island.
Phalaenopsis bellina is an orchid endemic to Borneo. It is one of 75 species of Phalaenopsis and one of the most commonly cultivated species in the genus.
Phalaenopsis gigantea is a species of orchid endemic to the island of Borneo and was first described in 1909. The specific epithet gigantea refers to the giant size of its fleshy leaves, which can grow to over 60 cm in length on a mature plant. It is the largest known Phalaenopsis species.
Dendrobium boosii, or Ronny Boos' dendrobium, is a species of plant in the family Orchidaceae endemic to the Philippines.
Phalaenopsis hygrochila, also known as 湿唇兰 in Chinese, is a species of epiphytic orchid native to Assam, China South-Central, China Southeast, East Himalaya, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Macodes sanderiana(Kraenzl.) Rolfe is a species of South East Asian jewel orchid mostly recorded from New Guinea but is also found in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. This species has a long history of cultivation in Europe since the early 20th century and is prized for its ornamental leaves which are the largest in its genus. The leaves are dark green, the upper surface covered in an intricate network of veins in colors ranging from bright green to copper. In contrast, flowers are small and pallid so are often removed in cultivation. In nature, M. sanderiana grows in rainforests on the forest floor or lithophytically out of rock crevices. This species survives at a broad range of altitudes from close to sea-level, up to the lower boundary of the cloud forest. Exudates from the leaves of this orchid are traditionally used in New Guinea as eye drops for the treatment of myopia. M. sanderiana has not been assessed for the IUCN red list, however, as recently as the 1980’s this species was common in parts of its range within New Guinea.
