Saturday, September 8, 2007

Orchids: Genus and Species



All orchids belong to the Orchid Family, Orchidaceae (or-Kid-ACE-ee-ee).

The scientific name of any plant is always in two parts:
Genus + Species.

GENUS: is a subdivision of the Family ... in which all the members have a smilar [or identical] characteristics. The genus name is captalized and is accompanied by the species name.

SPECIES: A subdivision of the genus, with very closely related plants. Members of the species do not pollinate members of another species. " A species is seperated by another species by a complete or near complete barrier to interbreeding".

Identifying a genus is more easy than identifying a species. Identifying a species generally cannot be done without examining the entire plant, sometimes through the growing, flowering and seeding season.

The orchid family has more than 1,000 genus and more than 25,000 species ...

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