The orchid family is one of the largest families in the flowering plants kingdom. It has more than 20,000 species worldwide. Orchids are generally found throughout the world ranging from the tropics to the subarctic zone. However, the orchid-richest areas are generally found in the tropics and subtropics. Orchids are also found well represented in the Southern African region; in total there are around 467 species in 53 genera are indigenous in this region, out of which 65% are endemic which comes to almost three times as many orchids as grow in Europe.
There are people who frequently ask what distinguishes an orchid from any other plant? There are several characteristics which would help people to distinguish an orchid from any other plant. We generally comment only on those which are easy to distinguish just by seeing. The most important characteristic of an orchid is that, it is irregular or zygomorphic flowers. The perianth about it is that it is usually clearly divided into an upper and a lower half. The perianth always has six lobes which are often arranged in two whorls of three. The lip or labellum of an orchid is usually a prominent and highly complicated lobe. A significant exception is our African genus Disa, which has a simple and rather insignificant lip. Most of the orchid flowers twist through 180ƒ just before they open. This movement of an orchid is termed as resupination which is necessary as the lip is originally developed on the upper side. After the resupination it is positioned on the lower side which is much more advantageous for successful pollination. Unlike most of the other plants the pollen grains of an orchid stick together and form masses called pollinia. The ovary of an orchid, when cut open, contains numerous tiny ovules, which in the mature capsule develops into dust-like seeds. It has a symbiotic relationship with fungi that live in their roots, called mycorrhiza.
The orchids generally grow in a wide variety of various habitats, including bushveld, savanna, karooid scrub, thorn scrub, fynbos and grassland, same as in many other plant groups, the Western Cape is where most of the species occur. If you want to grow Southern African orchids, cultivation notes are also available with the descriptions of some of the genera. Most of the African orchids are terrestrial.

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