Last week I went to some Orchids Days. It's a curious hobby. Orchid lovers go to several places trying to find and take a photo of the rarest or coolest orchid they can find. As a complete noob, I was only able to identify 5 species where the others saw 26. I still think they were 5 species with small variations or hybrids.
Anyways, I learned how to pick photos of a standing flower (they are not as still as you would think). I'd share a few for you flower lovers.
Some facts that I learned about orchids. The european orchids are grounded all of them. They have two bulbs, which give the name of the genus (orchids means testicles). They are all endangered in my country and it is strictly prohibited to pick, sell and/or distribute specimens, except for study or conservation projects. That makes them perfect for people who want go to the wilderness and spot one of these small miracles of nature. Every orchid species have an exclusive relationship with a fungi, and some require it's fungi and a specific pollinator, which makes them almost impossible to propagate in a nursery.
As most mediterranean flowers, they are very small, in a rather small plant. Most of them are 20cm tall, and the flowers are 2 or 4 cm wide.
Orchid fans brag about their cameras and the places they have visited searching for the rarest orchid. As far as a community, they look like a brotherhood, however, there is also bad vibes when it comes to authorship of a discovery. Sometimes a plant is surrepititiously removed so the others cannot take their share of the photo.
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