Nutrients for epiphytic orchids mainly come from mineral dust, organic detritus, animal droppings and other substances collecting among on their supporting surfaces.

Orchid leaves often have siliceous bodies called stegmata in the vascular bundle sheaths (not present in the Orchidoideae) and are fibrous.

Species that typically bask in sunlight, or grow on sites which can be occasionally very dry, have thick, leathery leaves and the laminae are covered by a waxy cuticle to retain their necessary water supply.

The leaves of Macodes sanderiana, a semiterrestrial or rock-hugging ("lithophyte") orchid, show a sparkling silver and gold veining on a light green background.

The cordate leaves of Psychopsiella limminghei are light brownish-green with maroon-puce markings, created by flower pigments.

The attractive mottle of the leaves of lady's slippers from tropical and subtropical Asia (Paphiopedilum), is caused by uneven distribution of chlorophyll.

[8][9][10][11] The reproductive parts of an orchid flower are unique in that the stamens and style are joined to form a single structure, the column.

[10][11][12] Instead of being released singly, thousands of pollen grains are contained in one or two bundles called pollinia that are attached to a sticky disc near the top of the column.

Although absent in most species, nectar may be produced in a spur of the labellum (8 in the illustration above), or on the point of the sepals, or in the septa of the ovary, the most typical position amongst the Asparagales.

This occurs when the anther changes from a solid to a liquid state and directly contacts the stigma surface without the aid of any pollinating agent or floral assembly.

In some extremely specialized orchids, such as the Eurasian genus Ophrys, the labellum is adapted to have a colour, shape, and odour which attracts male insects via mimicry of a receptive female.

Males of such species as Euglossa imperialis or Eulaema meriana have been observed to leave their territories periodically to forage for aromatic compounds, such as cineole, to synthesize pheromone for attracting and mating with females.

A rare achlorophyllous saprophytic orchid growing entirely underground in Australia, Rhizanthella slateri, is never exposed to light, and depends on ants and other terrestrial insects to pollinate it.

Catasetum, a genus discussed briefly by Darwin, actually launches its viscid pollinia with explosive force when an insect touches a seta, knocking the pollinator off the flower.

[19] Some species, such as in the genera Phalaenopsis, Dendrobium, and Vanda, produce offshoots or plantlets formed from one of the nodes along the stem, through the accumulation of growth hormones at that point.

Within certain petite orchid species groups, there is a noteworthy preparation of female gametes for fertilization preceding the act of pollination.

The usual medium for the sowing of orchids in artificial conditions is agar gel combined with a carbohydrate energy source.

[26] An extinct species of stingless bee, Proplebeia dominicana, was found trapped in Miocene amber from about 15–20 million years ago.

[28] According to Mark W. Chase et al. (2001), the overall biogeography and phylogenetic patterns of Orchidaceae show they are even older and may go back roughly 100 million years.

This also confirmed that the subfamily Vanilloideae is a branch at the basal dichotomy of the monandrous orchids, and must have evolved very early in the evolution of the family.

[30] Despite their long evolutionary history on Earth, the extant orchid diversity is also inferred to have originated during the last 5 million years,[30] with the American and Asian tropics as the geographic areas exhibiting the highest speciation rates (i.e., number of speciation events per million years) on Earth.

The genus name comes from the Ancient Greek ὄρχις (órkhis), literally meaning "testicle", because of the shape of the twin tubers in some species of Orchis.

The following list gives a rough overview of their distribution:[citation needed] A majority of orchids are perennial epiphytes, which grow anchored to trees or shrubs in the tropics and subtropics.

The fungi involved include those that form ectomycorrhizas with trees and other woody plants, parasites such as Armillaria, and saprotrophs.

While only a few species are achlorophyllous holoparasites, all orchids are myco-heterotrophic during germination and seedling growth, and even photosynthetic adult plants may continue to obtain carbon from their mycorrhizal fungi.

[47] The scent of orchids is frequently analysed by perfumers (using headspace technology and gas-liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry) to identify potential fragrance chemicals.

Wild stands of these plants can still be found in the same areas as early Aboriginal settlements, such as Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park in Australia.

Panama's national flower is the Holy Ghost orchid (Peristeria elata), or 'the flor del Espiritu Santo'.

[note 2] A French writer and agronomist, Louis Liger, invented a classical myth in his book Le Jardinier Fleuriste et Historiographe published in 1704, attributing it to the ancient Greeks and Romans, in which Orchis the son of a nymph and a satyr rapes a priestess of Bacchus during one of his festivals the Bacchanalia and is then killed and transformed into an orchid flower as punishment by the gods, paralleling the various myths of youths dying and becoming flowers, like Adonis and Narcissus; this myth however does not appear any earlier than Liger, and is not part of traditional Greek and Roman mythologies.

After relocation the 5 year survival of low and wide elevation species did not significantly differ and the mortality due to transplant shock was at only 10%.