Are orchids mysterious plants/flowers or not??
Orchids gained the mysterious reputation due to orchid collectors who was only too keen to fabricate stories of how they got to have their specific orchids. The story of when and where the orchids came from was always fabricated to throw other collectors off the trail and making it difficult for other collectors to find a particular species in the wild.
Apart from this obvious fabrication as to where and how the collectors got their orchids, some people also regarded orchids as weird as they did not understand the orchid reproductive system. In conventional flowers there are separate male and female reproductive organs, namely the stamens and the pistil. On an orchid flower the reproductive organs are combined in a single specialized reproductive structure named the column.
Well both these issues are no longer mysteries as the origin of different species is well-documented and the way in which the orchid column work is understood. Weird – Maybe, but definitely cool I would say.
