Orchid Morphology

Orchid plant consists of roots, stems, leaves and flowers.  The family Orchidaceae  have a unique characteristics of the roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds.

A. Flowers
Orchid is one of the ornamental plants and have many variety of colors and flower shapes. however orchid flowers have a same structure and characteristics.

Orchid flower consists of:  

a.Calyx (sepals) 

b.Crown (petal) 

c.labellum 

d.fruit, formed by the confluence of stigma and stamen

Sepals consists of three strands of orchids and the sidelines, there are two strands of sepals petal. While the labellum is a modification of petal.

B. Fruit

          

          Shape of orchids according to its varieties. Fruit is a lantern or capsular orchid that have  6 thousands . Three of them are true ribs and the other three is where the attachment of two different edges of the leaf pieces. In places the edge of the leaf pieces were coming together in one of the little finger of orchids there are hundreds of thousands or even millions of orchid seeds of orchid are very soft in a very small size.
           Orchid seeds have no endosperm as a food reserve, so in germination needed nutrients that serve to help the growth of seeds. Germination in nature is very difficult if without the help of fungi (fungus) called a mycorrhizal which symbiosis with the orchid seeds. In appropriate environmental conditions, or threads of mycorrhizal hyphae will penetrate through the orchid embryo suspensor cells. Then fungi are digested resulting in release of nutrients used as energy material for the growth and development of the germination of orchid seeds.

 
C. leaf

         Fleshy leaf blade dark green orchids. Surfaces coated leaf cuticle (waxy layer) that can protect from pests and diseases. Position of leaves arranged in alternating rows.

         Orchid leaves have a characteristic bony parallel leaf. While the shape is different, there are elongated and have rounded depending on the species. This type of orchid leaves showed habitat conditions. According to the growth of orchid leaves are classified into two namely:

1. Evergren group (type leaves stay fresh / green), the orchid strands its leaf does not fall in unison.
2. Decidous group (fall type), ie all strands fall leaves and the plant experienced a period of rest, then substituted with the emergence of interest.

       Orchids stems and leaves contain chlorophyll, this is very help maximize the absorption of sunlight for photosynthesis in a forest habitat in low light. Chlorophyll in the stems of orchids are not easily lost or degraded even though the leaves have fallen, and therefore also has the nickname evergreen orchids.

D. Stem

Posted in: Ornamental Crops