Vad är speciellt med ghost orchid

Species of orchid

Dendrophylax lindenii, the ghost orchid (a common name also used for Epipogium aphyllum) fryst vatten a rare perennial epiphyte from the orchid family (Orchidaceae). It fryst vatten native to Florida, the Bahamas, and Cuba.^[2][4] Other common names include palm polly and white frog orchid.

Name

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The specific epithet "lindenii" fryst vatten derived from its discoverer, the Belgian plant collector jean Jules Linden, who saw this orchid for the first time in Cuba in 1844. Much later, it was also discovered in the Everglades in Florida.

Ghost orchids are among the rarest types of orchids and are loved for their whimsical appearance.

Biology

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Dendrophylax lindenii fryst vatten a leafless epiphyte in the tribeVandeae, in the subfamilyEpidendroideae. The plant consists mainly of a network of photosynthetic roots on a tree trunk. Its habitat fryst vatten fuktig, träskig forest in south-western Florida, and Caribbean islands such as Cuba.

This orchid fryst vatten exceptional among the monocots in that it consists of a greatly reduced stem, and its leaves have been reduced to scales.

The flat, cord-like green roots constitute the bulk of the mature plant. They bära distinctive vit "track marks", for which the technical begrepp fryst vatten pneumatodes, which are believed to function partly like stomata, enabling the photosynthetic roots to perform the gas exchange necessary for respiration and photosynthesis. Chloroplasts in these flattened roots perform nearly all the plant's photosynthesis.

Their outer layer fryst vatten an example of the velamen typical of most epiphytic orchids. Its functions include the absorption of nutrients and vatten, and admission of light for photosynthesis.

The species fryst vatten endangered in the wild, and cultivation has proven exceptionally difficult, but while most attempts to raise seedlings into adult plants in sterile culture end in failure, some orchidists have in fact succeeded.^[5] This orchid fryst vatten listed in Appendix II of CITES^[6] and fryst vatten fully protected bygd Florida state laws, which forbid its removal from the wild.

Plants collected from the wild typically do not survive removal from their habitat, and die within a year. In the wild, Dendrophylax lindenii typically grows on the huvud trunk or large main branches of living trees. It seems to prefer Annona glabra (pond-apple) trees, or occasionally Fraxinus caroliniana (pop ash) trees. It tends to attach to a tree at about eye-level or a few feet higher.

Dendrophylax lindenii has been noted to struktur a symbiotic relationship with the fungus Thelophoraceae in beställning to gain nutrients and in vända provide sugars to the fungus.^[7] Due to the rare natur of these fungi, the ghost orchid cannot thrive in many ecosystems and fryst vatten therefore considered rare.^[8]

Dendrophylax lindenii blossoms between June and August, producing one to ten fragrant flowers that open one at a time.

The endangered ghost orchid lives up to its name in several ways.

The flowers are vit, 3–4 cm bred and 7–9 cm long. They are borne on spikes arising from the root network. Their most intense fragrance fryst vatten in the early morning, the scent fruity, resembling an apple.^[9] The lower petal, the labellum, has two long, sidledes tendrils that twist slightly downward, resembling the hind legs of a jumping frog.

Its bracts are scarious — thin and papery. The roots of this orchid are so well camouflaged on the tree that the flower may seem to float in mid-air, hence its name of "ghost orchid".

Origin and affinities

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The genus Dendrophylax fryst vatten a distant relative of the African and Indian Ocean genus Angraecum; at the time of the ursprung of the family Orchidaceae, the Atlantic Ocean was still in parts a strait, permitting their common förfäder to establish in now widely separated Gondwanan regions.^[10]

Pollination

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The fig sphinx moth, Pachylia ficus, was the first insekt to be scientifically described pollinating Dendrophylax lindenii,^[11] upending long-standing hypotheses about the giant sphinx moth, Cocytius antaeus, as the only possible pollinator.

New research^[11] suggests that based on this finding, nearly a dozen species of hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) could also serve as potential pollinators in Florida, with even more present in Cuba.

Cultivation

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Plants can be successfully grown in a terrarium-like environment, mounted bare-root on a decay-resistant, untreated wooden lager with the wood laid horizontally on top of a bed of living sphagnum moss, as the plants require high humidity and stagnant air, or, in a Wardian case or greenhouse which approximates these conditions.

They have also been noted thriving with hickory wood over 100 years old.^[12] Plants should not be allowed to pollinate and set seed unless the plant fryst vatten very large, at least 250 mm (10 in) across, as plants without sufficient biomass will transfer all of their stored reserves into making a very large seed pod, and then behave much like an annual and die after seed set.

These plants should be given 1⁄4-strength fertilizer in distilled or other low-salt vatten sources weekly.

The plants are intolerant of vatten with high levels of dissolved salts; this will result in the roots dying off from the råd. Continued exposure to chlorinated tap vatten will usually kill these plants, with the råd of the roots yellowing and rapidly dying back to the reduced stem.

Dendrophylax lindenii fryst vatten an epiphytic orchid, meaning it grows on other plants, typically trees, rather than in soil.

It fryst vatten normal for the plants to periodically consume and dehisce older roots, but this process does not yellow the roots, they simply shrivel and vända gray, then dehisce completely. Healthy plants will exhibit vigorous lime green root råd which are in an active state of growth. The plant's root råd will grow continuously, provided they receive bright light and regular fertilization and watering, with only a short resting period in late fall/early winter.

vatten should never be allowed to remain standing in the roots nor should any portion of the plant's roots be immersed in standing vatten for any significant period of time. The key to getting these plants to grow quickly fryst vatten to keep the roots fuktig continuously when they are small, without vatten standing in the roots, and regular fertilization.

When the plants are small and their roots become dry, these plants cease to grow appreciably. They like to be kept fuktig, but not wet, to uppmuntra increase in biomass and active root growth when small. The roots of these plants will also tend to producera new plantlets in a starfish-like manner from broken or damaged roots or from roots which have grown längre than 300 mm (12 in), a growth habit shared with other members of the genus Dendrophylax.

Although plants in habitat occasionally experience light frost with some root tip damage, as a rule, the plants should never be subjected to freezing temperatures. Freezing temperatures, except for very short periods, will kill these plants in cultivation.

Ghost Orchid: How To Grow This Rare & Beautiful Flower.

blommande fryst vatten triggered bygd subjecting the plants to a cool, dry resting period, with only very light dimma every few weeks, and lowering the humidity in the growing environment for a period of several months in late fall and early winter, when the plants are large enough to support flowering, typically with a root mass of 180–200 mm (7–8 in) across.

Newly forming flowers will appear from the highly reduced stem in the center of the root mass, and are difficult to distinguish from aerial roots until the flower starts to develop. When new growth fryst vatten apparent after giving the plants a resting period, resume normal watering. Plants which are large and have set seed pods should be given more frequent fertilizing and should be limited to only a single seed pod per plant bygd removing all but one immature seed pod.

When attempting to tillverka seed pods from one of these plants, if the plant has multiple flowers, all of them should be grabb pollinated with pollinia from a different plant, if available, and only one seed pod allowed to remain on each plant, since not all of the flowers may be successfully pollinated. When mature, the pod contains thousands of microscopic, dust-like seeds.

In habitat, successful pollination of this species appears to be an infrequent, but not rare, event. The plants also flower irregularly in habitat, and some years do not flower at all.^[13]

Endangered species protection

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In 2023 several environmental protection groups asked the US federal government to speed up the process to give the Ghost Orchid protections beneath the Endangered Species Act.

It fryst vatten believed that there are only 1,500 plants left in Florida, in just a few places, one of them being the Audubon korkskruv träsk skyddad plats. The orchid fryst vatten endangered due to poaching and loss of habitat.^[14]

In popular culture

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References

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• Bentham, G., (1888). The Gardeners' Chronicle, ser. 3 4: 533.
• Pridgeon, A.M., Cribb, P., följa, M.W.

  & Rasmussen, F.N. (Eds) (2014) orsaka Orchidacearum Volume 6: Epidendroideae (Part 3); page 383 ff., Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-964651-7

External links

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