Discussion

Orchids

Every year in February, the world's largest and most prestigious orchid show is held at Tōkyō's Dome City Prism Hall. This year, the Japan Grand Prix International Orchid Festival exhibited around 1,000,000 blossoms of over 3,000 varieties provided by over 1,000 exhibitors. The week-long show was attended by around 300,000 visitors. This photo shows a small portion of the festival.

It is one of many such orchid shows around the world.

The grand prize winner at this year's festival in Japan was this hybrid named Phragmipedium Fritz Schomburg ‘Long Live’.

It is easy to see why some people are passionate orchid lovers.

There are roughly 28,000 orchid species in the wild, and over 100,000 registered hybrids and cultivars. More are being identified every year. Botanists have organized orchids into 700 to 880 genera depending on who is counting. Orchids occur naturally on every continent except Antarctica with the most being found in South America with about 12,000 species. From 200 to 250 species are native to the U.S. and Canada with roughly half being found in Florida. Various species occupy a range of habitats from tropical rainforests to arid deserts and mountain regions.

A very popular genus of orchids is commonly called the moth orchid (Phalaenopsis). There are from 60 to 90 natural moth orchid species and thousands of man-made hybrids. This one is a Phalaenopsis amabilis.

Moth orchids come in many colors. I'm not sure what specific species of moth orchid this one is, but it shows that multicolored varieties are available.

Shapes vary, too, as shown by this Phalaenopsis celebensis moth orchid.

These moth orchids in the photo below are shown in their native habitat; warm, humid, shaded tropical regions of Southeast Asia, India, southern China, and northeastern Australia. The photo shows them attached to a tree, making them epiphytes, plants that draw all of their nutrients from the air. They are not parasites like mistletoes. The tree isn't harmed. 

Some moth orchids are lithophytes; plants that grow on rocks and draw their nutrients from rain water and decomposing plant debris in rock cracks. Lithophyte orchids are assisted by a symbiotic relationship with certain types of fungus. Both epiphytes and lithophyte orchids have fleshy roots that are exposed to the air.

All orchids are either epiphytes, lithophytes, or terrestrial. Terrestrial orchids grow in soil like most other plants. About 70% of all orchids are epiphytes. This pink lady's slipper orchid (Paphiopedilum—not the same genus as moth orchids) is an example of a terrestrial orchid.

The orchid leaves shown above (not the ferns) are typical of all orchids in that their veins run parallel with each other. They are thick, succulent, and leathery and have evolved to store water during dry periods.

Orchid blossoms have three sepals—parts of the calyx—and three petals all arranged bilaterally. In other words, if you imagine a vertical line down the middle of a blossom, the right and left sides would be mirror images of each other. Look at this anatomy chart.

Orchids that self-pollinate don't yield nearly as many seeds as result from cross-pollination.

Orchid blossoms that are successfully pollinated produce one seed capsule that takes from 80 to 180 days to mature. A seed capsule can contain many thousands to millions of microscopic seeds depending primarily on which orchid species it is from.

When released, seeds are wind dispersed. Most won't survive because orchid seeds don't have the endosperm layer most plant seeds have that provides nutrients for developing seeds. Orchid seeds need to land on endomycorrhizal fungi to acquire the nutrients they need to germinate and grow.

Most orchids are evergreen perennials that can live for many years. New leaves appear as older ones die out. Floral spikes grow once a year in the winter or spring and typically last several weeks before dying out. The flowers of Phalaenopsis, a popular genus, last from 8 to 12 weeks. The plant is in a resting phase for the rest of the year, storing up nutrients and energy for when it is time for the next floral spike to appear.

Some orchid species are edible. Their petals can be candied, added to salads, used in stir-fries, or even frozen into ice cubes. One orchid species, Vanilla planifolia, is where vanilla beans come from. It is the source of the vanilla extract widely used in baking, ice cream, and other products.

Cymbidium

My painting subject this week is an orchid in the Cymbidium genus. Cymbidiums are commonly called boat orchids based on the shape of the lip which, some say, resembles a boat. The Latin word for boat is cymba. Depending on the botanical classification used, there are 44 to 70 natural species in the genus and many more natural hybrids. They are native to the Himalayas, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Australia.

The model I used for my demonstration painting is a Cymbidium I have in my yard. I don't know the exact species name for it—perhaps it's a hybrid—but it resembles a mix of the two Cymbidiums shown below. The shape is similar to Cymbidium eburneum.

And the coloring is virtually identical to the Cymbidium goeringii.

Incidentally, Cymbidium goeringii is the species name for the orchid that the Japanese call shunran. Common names for it are noble orchid or Japanese spring orchid. It is usually the type of orchid used in the shikunshi (four gentlemen) subjects; the four subjects often taught first to beginning sumi painting students.

As with these two Cymbidiums, there is quite a bit of difference between the appearance of other member species in the Cymbidium genus. One thing they all have in common is that the leaves are thin and narrow. That is quite a difference from the leaves shown in the photo of the terrestrial orchid shown earlier. Depending on the specific species, Cymbidiums may be epiphytes, lithophytes, or terrestrial.

Cymbidium floral spikes typically have from 10 to 25 blossoms. The number can reach to as many as 50 on well-tended plants. One floral spike per season is common for Cymbidiums, but in ideal conditions, there may often be one or two more. It is hard to tell, but there may be as many as 3 spikes on the plant below.

Artwork

Kose Shōseki (1843 - 1919)

I can find nothing about this artist except for his birth and death dates and that he produced a series of kachō-ga (pictures of birds and flowers) prints in the 1890s. This Cymbidium print is one of them.

Imao Keinen (1845 – 1924)

Keinen was part of the early 20th century shin-hanga (new prints) movement. He is primarily remembered today as the author of Keinen Kachō Gafu, a book he published in 1892 of kachō-ga prints. This one is Cymbidium, Reeds, and Finch.

Tanigami Konan (1879 – 1928)

Tanigami is another artist about whom little known. In spite of that, his kachō-ga prints are highly regarded today. This Cypripedium (lady's slipper orchid) print was produced in the 1910s.

Gesso Yoshimoto (1881 - 1936)

This is yet another artist about whom little is known and whose work, mostly kachō-ga prints, was mostly forgotten until early in the 21st century. His name surfaced more prominently after the death of American collector and dealer Robert O. Muller in 2003, when Muller's extensive shin-hanga collection entered the art market, revealing numerous prints attributed to Yoshimoto. This print from the 1930s is a Cattleya orchid, known as the Queen of orchids.