Sex and the Single Orchid

Sex and the Single Orchid (from the series: Stigma & Style)

Although it might not seem that way, the orchid family is the largest family of flowering plants. It is prolific. The UK’s Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew list 880 genera and just less than 22,000 species, giving it more species by far than all mammals and all birds taken together. Most orchids are natural to tropical or subtropical regions. They grow as attachments to other plants or shrubs or even trees, and not all of them are as pretty as the specimen in the image.

The name “orchid” derives from the Greek “orchis”, meaning testicles. The name was chosen by Theophrastus, a Greek, because the underground tubers of local orchid varieties resembled a pair of testicles. The tubers were believed to have medicinal value and were thought to stimulate sexual desire, cure sterility and could even help determine the sex of a child. Such beliefs were not confined to Europe. Japanese legend has it that an Emperor’s wife, who was sterile, inhaled the perfume of an orchid and went on to have 13 children.