Ghost Orchid
Encyclopedia
Dendrophylax lindenii, the Ghost Orchid - not to be confused with the Eurasian Ghost Orchid (Epipogium aphyllum
) - is a perennial epiphyte
from the orchid family (Orchidaceae
). Other common names include Palm Polly and White Frog Orchid. Formerly classified under Polyrrhiza this orchid has recently been moved to the genus Dendrophylax.
The database World Checklist of Monocotyledons of Kew Botanical Gardens at present considers Dendrophylax lindenii as the accepted name, while Polyrrhiza lindenii is considered as a homotypic synonym.
Its specific epithet "lindenii" is 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
.
This orchid is an epiphyte
, anchored in a network of large, tangled mass on a tree
. It is found in moist, swamp
y forests in southwestern Florida and Cuba
.
This is an endangered orchid in the wild. Cultivation outside of its native environment has proven exceptionally difficult, but not impossible. Although many fail in the attempt to raise seedlings grown in sterile culture into adult plants, some have succeeded. This orchid is listed on the Appendix II of CITES and is fully protected by Florida state laws and should not be removed from the wild.
This orchid is an exceptional monocot, as it consists of a greatly reduced stem
and the leaves
have been reduced to scales. The bulk of the plant consists only of flat, cord-like, green root
s with distinctive "track marks". These roots are used for moisture absorption and their chloroplast
s for photosynthesis
. The outer layer, the velamen
, takes care of acquiring the nutrients and the water uptake. It also protects the inner layers.
This orchid is a distant relative of the African and Indian Ocean genus Angraecum; it seems that orchid seed, blowing like dust, crossed the Atlantic at least once and successfully colonized new habitat.
This orchid blossoms between June and August, with one to ten fragrant flowers that open one at a time. The white flower
is 3–4 cm wide and 7–9 cm long and is borne on spikes arising from the root network. During its peak fragrance emittance in the early morning, the scent is fruity, resembling an apple. The lower petal produces two long tendrils that twist slightly downward, resembling the back legs of a jumping frog. Its bract
s are scarious - that is, thin, dry, membranous, and paperlike.
Since the roots of this orchid blend so well with the tree, the flower often seems to be floating in midair, hence its name of "Ghost Orchid".
The Ghost Orchid seems to prefer Annona glabra (Pond-apple) trees, or on occasion Fraxinus caroliniana
(Pop Ash) trees, being from eye-level to only a few feet above eye-level.
Pollination
is done by the giant sphinx moth
, the only local insect
with a long enough proboscis
. In this regard it may be said to be the America's answer to the Madagascar
orchid Angraecum sesquipedale
, which led Charles Darwin
to predict that a long-tongued species of moth
would be found to fertilize it. Years later the moth responsible was discovered: Morgan's hawk moth Xanthopan morgani
.
, and the movie based on the book, Adaptation. The ghost orchid of Blair Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary also inspired the fiction novel, Ghost Orchid.
Epipogium aphyllum
The Ghost Orchid - not to be confused with the American Ghost Orchid - is a myco-heterotrophic orchid lacking chlorophyll....
) - is a perennial epiphyte
Epiphyte
An epiphyte is a plant that grows upon another plant non-parasitically or sometimes upon some other object , derives its moisture and nutrients from the air and rain and sometimes from debris accumulating around it, and is found in the temperate zone and in the...
from the orchid family (Orchidaceae
Orchidaceae
The Orchidaceae, commonly referred to as the orchid family, is a morphologically diverse and widespread family of monocots in the order Asparagales. Along with the Asteraceae, it is one of the two largest families of flowering plants, with between 21,950 and 26,049 currently accepted species,...
). Other common names include Palm Polly and White Frog Orchid. Formerly classified under Polyrrhiza this orchid has recently been moved to the genus Dendrophylax.
Name
Synonyms include :- Aeranthes lindenii (Lindl.) Rchb.f. in W.G.Walpers, Ann. Bot. Syst. 6: 902, 1864.
- Angraecum lindenii Lindl., Gard. Chron. 1846(1): 135, 1846.
- Polyrrhiza lindenii (Lindl.) Cogn., Symb. Antill. 6: 680, 1910.
- Polyradicion lindenii (Lindl.) Garay, J. Arnold Arbor. 50: 467 (1969). (This name is still used by many authors).
The database World Checklist of Monocotyledons of Kew Botanical Gardens at present considers Dendrophylax lindenii as the accepted name, while Polyrrhiza lindenii is considered as a homotypic synonym.
Its specific epithet "lindenii" is derived from its discoverer, the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
collector Jean Jules Linden who saw this orchid for the first time in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
in 1844. Much later it was also discovered in the Everglades
Everglades
The Everglades are subtropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large watershed. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee...
in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
.
Biology
Epiphyte
An epiphyte is a plant that grows upon another plant non-parasitically or sometimes upon some other object , derives its moisture and nutrients from the air and rain and sometimes from debris accumulating around it, and is found in the temperate zone and in the...
, anchored in a network of large, tangled mass on a tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
. It is found in moist, swamp
Swamp
A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...
y forests in southwestern Florida and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
.
This is an endangered orchid in the wild. Cultivation outside of its native environment has proven exceptionally difficult, but not impossible. Although many fail in the attempt to raise seedlings grown in sterile culture into adult plants, some have succeeded. This orchid is listed on the Appendix II of CITES and is fully protected by Florida state laws and should not be removed from the wild.
This orchid is an exceptional monocot, as it consists of a greatly reduced stem
Plant stem
A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes, the nodes hold buds which grow into one or more leaves, inflorescence , conifer cones, roots, other stems etc. The internodes distance one node from another...
and the leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
have been reduced to scales. The bulk of the plant consists only of flat, cord-like, green root
Root
In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial or aerating . Furthermore, a stem normally occurring below ground is not exceptional either...
s with distinctive "track marks". These roots are used for moisture absorption and their chloroplast
Chloroplast
Chloroplasts are organelles found in plant cells and other eukaryotic organisms that conduct photosynthesis. Chloroplasts capture light energy to conserve free energy in the form of ATP and reduce NADP to NADPH through a complex set of processes called photosynthesis.Chloroplasts are green...
s for photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and many species of bacteria, but not in archaea. Photosynthetic organisms are called photoautotrophs, since they can...
. The outer layer, the velamen
Velamen
Velamen is a spongy, multiple epidermis that covers the roots of some epiphytic or semi-epiphytic plants, such as orchid and Clivia species....
, takes care of acquiring the nutrients and the water uptake. It also protects the inner layers.
This orchid is a distant relative of the African and Indian Ocean genus Angraecum; it seems that orchid seed, blowing like dust, crossed the Atlantic at least once and successfully colonized new habitat.
This orchid blossoms between June and August, with one to ten fragrant flowers that open one at a time. The white flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
is 3–4 cm wide and 7–9 cm long and is borne on spikes arising from the root network. During its peak fragrance emittance in the early morning, the scent is fruity, resembling an apple. The lower petal produces two long tendrils that twist slightly downward, resembling the back legs of a jumping frog. Its bract
Bract
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale. Bracts are often different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture...
s are scarious - that is, thin, dry, membranous, and paperlike.
Since the roots of this orchid blend so well with the tree, the flower often seems to be floating in midair, hence its name of "Ghost Orchid".
The Ghost Orchid seems to prefer Annona glabra (Pond-apple) trees, or on occasion Fraxinus caroliniana
Fraxinus caroliniana
Fraxinus caroliniana, commonly known as the Pop ash, Florida ash, Swamp ash, or Water ash, is a species of ash tree native to the southeastern United States. It was originally described by the botanist Philip Miller. It is a small tree about 40 ft...
(Pop Ash) trees, being from eye-level to only a few feet above eye-level.
Pollination
Pollination
Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains transport the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself...
is done by the giant sphinx moth
Cocytius antaeus
The Giant Sphinx is a moth of the Sphingidae family. It is found from Brazil through Central America and into the southern parts of Texas and Florida in the United States.The wingspan is 126-178 mm...
, the only local insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
with a long enough proboscis
Proboscis
A proboscis is an elongated appendage from the head of an animal, either a vertebrate or an invertebrate. In simpler terms, a proboscis is the straw-like mouth found in several varieties of species.-Etymology:...
. In this regard it may be said to be the America's answer to the Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
orchid Angraecum sesquipedale
Angraecum sesquipedale
Angraecum sesquipedale is an epiphytic orchid in the genus Angraecum that is endemic to Madagascar. The orchid was first discovered by the French botanist Louis-Marie Aubert du Petit-Thouars in 1798, but was not described until 1822...
, which led Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
to predict that a long-tongued species of moth
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...
would be found to fertilize it. Years later the moth responsible was discovered: Morgan's hawk moth Xanthopan morgani
Xanthopan morgani
Xanthopan morgani, or Morgan's Sphinx, is a very large hawk moth from West Africa and Madagascar. It is the sole member of its genus, and little is known of the biology, though the adults have been found to visit orchids .In January 1862 while researching insect pollination of orchids, Charles...
.
In popular culture
The plant plays a pivotal role in the non-fiction book The Orchid ThiefThe Orchid Thief
The Orchid Thief is a 1998 non-fiction book by American journalist and author Susan Orlean, based on her investigation of the 1994 arrest of John Laroche and a group of Seminoles in south Florida for poaching rare orchids in the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve.The book is based on an article that...
, and the movie based on the book, Adaptation. The ghost orchid of Blair Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary also inspired the fiction novel, Ghost Orchid.
External links
- Ghost Orchid (Dendrophylax lindenii) Information Page at The Florida's Native and Naturalized Orchids Website.
- GhostOrchid.info
- "Rare ghost orchid found in Fla. preserve" (AP, July 11, 2007)
- Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary Ghost Orchid Page
- "A Ghostly Success In the Most Unlikely Place-Hale Method" http://www.aos.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=home&CONTENTID=7892&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm