The Orchid Show: Darwin’s Star Orchid

A brief history of one of the world’s most esoteric orchids

In this video , Marc Hachadourian , conservator of the orchid aggregation at the New York Botanical Garden , consecrate a brief chronicle of the world ’s most esoteric orchids .

Being a botanical garden , we have access to hundreds of orchidaceous plant of very unusual types , size , and shapes . Some of them are miniatures with flowers no bigger than the question of a PIN number ; others are fantastic plants like the one known to our visitors as the Darwin ’s Star Orchid ( Angraecum sesquipedale ) , which is aboriginal to Madagascar .

This orchid has a absorbing story not only for its biological science but also for its relationship to Charles Darwin . When Darwin was first present with a flower of this plant life , he was fascinated by the strange , large , waxy efflorescence with a tenacious derriere that actually has a nectar spur and a midget flake of nectar at its root . The nectar spur of this flower is over 12 inches long . He theorized that since it was a white flower and only fragrant at dark , there was a moth with a tongue long enough to pollinate this efflorescence .

Of naturally , when Darwin told the world that there was a moth with a 12 - inch - long tongue fly around Madagascar , it raised a few eyebrows . Some 40 years after , biologist get a line that the moth was indeed real and had the 12 - column inch tongue necessary to drink from the base of that long nectar spur . The moth was by and by namedXanthopan morganii praedicta , the “ augur moth . ” Only in the past five to ten years have wildlife photographers catch this moth performing the number of pollenation in which it take flight up to the salad days , unwind this enormously longsighted tongue , and sip the nectar . It is truly one of the most interesting and more or less bizarre orchidaceous plant we have on showing this class here at the Orchid Show .

The Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden

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