Diwali,
as the name substantiates is the festival of lights. It indicates bringing happiness
and prosperity in everyone’s life, it also marks the end of darkness and evil
power. This festival of lights is celebrated throughout the country,
irrespective of religion, cast and creed with full devotion. It unites people by
eliminating any rivalry and teaches them to live in harmony. Diwali is marked
with the lighting of lamps to signify the victory over evil spirits, by keeping
clay lamps all around the house and also by bursting crackers. Homes are
cleaned, painted and illuminated with additional lights to welcome goddess Lakshmi.
People wear new clothes and distribute sweets among them to mark the grandeur
of the festival.
send flowers online to Mumbai, pune, delhi, ahmedabad, hyderabad, chandigarh, mumbai, indore, kolkata.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Wild Sunflower Seeds | Helianthus annuus
It is believed that the first helianthus seed raised in
Europe was imported from Peru and Mexico and grown in 1562 in the Royal Gardens
in Madrid. Towards the end of the sixteenth century helianthus are thought to
have been cultivated in Italy. At that time
helianthus were also known by J. P. de Tournefort as Chrysanthemum peruvianum
and Corona Solis. After Cortuso's observations stated that helianthus flowers
turned during the day to follow the course of the sun—a supposed characteristic
but not correct—the name Helian thus was definitely confirmed by Linnaeus.
Helian thus is taken from the Greek, hellos and anthos.
Buying Flowers Online
There
are many sites to buy flowers online. They compete with each other to provide
the best quality flowers with unique arrangements at the cheapest rate. The
customer has to check the site and select from the wide range of flowers
available. Once selected, the payment can be done using credit/debit cards.
They will deliver the flowers to the address the customer needs. Door delivery
is one of the good aspects of online buying. It makes sure that the person
receives the package on time and fresh.
There
are wide varieties of flower arrangements for each occasion. Once the order is
made florists start assembling the flowers and experts make sure that the customer
receives the best quality fresh flowers. Before, we had to go out to a florists
shop and have to go through each and every one of the arrangements to see which
one is needed. It was a tiring and time-consuming process. These online sites
makes buying flowers easy.
A1BangaloreFlowers made this possible to send flowers online in Bangalore city.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
A Flower Decoration Theme
The party planners have all the efficiency to provide a perfect
decoration according to your theme. Whether you want to go ahead with a
beach wedding party of an indoor party, each scope will be diverse and
prominent with flowers as online gifts. After finishing up your
occasion, you can now get to share the pictures with the help of social
media network. A gift will be always special when it involves flower.
A theme that involves flower from online gift shop can make your guests really happy and cheerful. You can now have all freedom to send gifts through an electronic media. A friend who stays far away from you can be happy to receive an e-card filled with flowers of her choice. To get a perfect idea of flower decoration theme, online florist can help you in each and every way. The arrangement will be unusual as well as unique as compared to others.
A theme that involves flower from online gift shop can make your guests really happy and cheerful. You can now have all freedom to send gifts through an electronic media. A friend who stays far away from you can be happy to receive an e-card filled with flowers of her choice. To get a perfect idea of flower decoration theme, online florist can help you in each and every way. The arrangement will be unusual as well as unique as compared to others.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Raksha Bandhan Celebrates At Rakhi Purnima
Rakhi Purnima is well notorious on the whole moon day of the Hindu month Shravan (august). The Rakhi Purnima is particularly significant mainly as a result of it's illustrious differently throughout the country.
People reimburse sumptuously on each tiny issue that's associated to the Rakhi celebration. There's a category in everything that folks value more highly to purchase. If you choose looking throughout the festive incident of Rakhi, you will be amazed to check the tremendous collection accessible within the forms of Rakhis, starting from easy mouli and zari rakhi to resham and beaded rakhis. Several days before the arrival of Rakhi festivity, folks begin creating preparations for the big day. The looking malls are lighted for welcoming the guests.
With the day break folks begin preparing and gather for the worship ritual. A Rakhi Thali (plate) is ready on that they place the Rakhi, a diya (earthen lamp), water, roli (red threads), rice, vermilion or turmeric powder and a few sweets.
Each person should celebrate with enthusiasm this sacred festival of Rakhi or Raksha Bandhan. (Raksha = protection. Bandhan = tie).
A Love Bond Between Brothers And Sisters
On the unusual incident of Raksha Bandhan, people of all age group can appreciate the actual value of having their own brother and sister in their life.
Sisters whole heartedly award sweets to their brothers to eat which in turns add more cuteness in the Raksha Bandhan festival and pray for their well being. In return, brothers spoil their sisters and present beautiful gifts to lure them. They also swear to take care of her and arise by her side in any position. Rakshabandhan is notable as Nariyal Purnima in the western division of the country. Coconuts are thrown into the sea as a mark of esteem and offering to Lord Varuna.
A1 City Flowers
Monday, October 8, 2012
Values and beliefs of the Indian culture
India is a beautiful
country that shares different beliefs and values from other countries, making
it unique. It has its own values, traditions and these are evident in the epic
poems. These poems contain the values and beliefs that were passed from
generation to generation. The famous Mahabharata is one of the epic poems that contain
the essence of the Indian cultural heritage. Famous people like Mahatma Gandhi,
who fought against injustice, Guru Nanak, who influenced and created a new
religion Sikhism, have helped develop the Indian culture. Fairy tales also
plays an important role in helping a child grow by developing the sense of its
cultural traditions and moral values. The epic poems, famous people and fairy
tales are the elements that help make a country unique and in developing
cultural understanding of the moral values and traditions.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Flowers for Gift - Flowers For Expressing Emotions Daily
There
is no gift or present that can be as precious and exclusive as these flowers are.
Not only these exclusive flowers brighten up your celebration, but it will
surely charm the recipient as well. For
more information on beautiful and exclusive flower bouquets, you can always visit
one of the flower shops that are close to your workplace or home.
If
time is a concern, then there are exclusive online flower shops that will help you
in choosing one of the best flowers that will complement the special occasion. All
you have to do is place an online order for the flowers that impress you and
make a payment as well. These florists will ensure to deliver the bouquet to
the desired destination, without any delay. There are many reputed online flower shops that
has been rendering services to all of their clients, in the best possible
manner. Apart from selling these
beautiful flowers, these professionals also undertake the services of
decorating venues and halls with flowers.
Today
it has become a trend to decorate venues and halls with good and impressive
looking flowers, for celebrating marriages, festivals, parties, or felicitation
programs. No doubt you need to seek the help of a professional who can decorate
the whole venue in a remarkable manner. You can book for their services, well
in advance so that they can arrange for some of the fresh and gorgeous looking flowers
for the occasion. These flowers can
instantly change the overall beauty and appearance of a boring or colorless
looking venue.
Monday, June 25, 2012
The Orchid Family
The orchids are members of a distinct family known as
Orchidaceae that has been derived from lily-like plants.
Orchidales are so much closely related to the Asperagales
that sometimes it is merged with the latter. This order is characterised by the
following shared primitive features: Zygomorphous, epigynous flowers, wet
stigma, simultaneous microsporogenesis and endosperms arrested by an early
stage or wholly inhibited.
Orchidales, as conceived by Dahlgren and Rasmussen, comprise
three families, such as, Apostasiaceae, Cypripediaceae and Orchidaceae. In most
published works, these families have been, however, united into one, that is
Orchidaceae. Among these, the system of Dressler , revised by him in 1993, has
been universally hailed as the most phylogenetic one for Orchidaceae. More
recently, Szlachetko in his system of classification has tried to improve
Dressler's system by avoiding cases of cladistic analysis that have often led
to the formation of monothetic groups. For example, Dressler has included two highly morphologically and
anatomically different groups like Dendrobieae and Vandae under the Dendrobioid
subclade basing only on the presence of stigmata or spherical cells. Szlachetko justifies the maintenance of the three
separate families, as above, based on the study of generative structure, which
according to him, have developed differently. Apart from the difference in the
gynostemium structure, the three families differ in the organization of the
perianth as well.
Type: Orchis Linn.
Plants variable in habit; herb, vine or shrub-like,
sympodials and monopodials; autotrophic or occasionally micotrophic i.e.
saprophytic. Roots clustered or scattered along the stem or rhizome, with or
without velamen. Storage organs of different forms. Leaves plicate, convolute,
duplicate or terete, occasionally scale-like, cauline or basal, sessile or
petiolate, articulated or not. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, forming a
spike, raceme or panicle or capitate, single to many flowered. Flowers of
various sizes and shapes, resupinate or not; the median tepal of the inner
whorl transformed into a lip, usually different from the other tepals; lip
sometimes similar in shape and size to the perianth. Ovary usually
one-chambered, but occasionally three-chambered. Gynostemium often tied with
the basal column, foot free or agglutinate with the ovary. Column part formed
by the complete or partial fusion of the staminodes; filament and style usually
well developed, but none in some groups; occasionally the style and stigma are
borne at the end of the column. Stigma triple, double or single-lobed, often
greatly modified, concave or convex, entire or split into three parts, wet. The
median stigma lobed, modified into the rostellum, a structure of various shapes
and sizes, producing a viscidium, usually single, but double in several genera,
cellular, rarely semi-fluid. The viscidium sometimes produces a hook-like
structure, the so-called hamulus. The tegula originates on the abaxial surface
of the rostellum.
The single anther, representing the median of the outer
whorl, is fertile, erect, reflexed or incumbent, fixed or movable or
detachable; connective thick, fleshy or wide, separating or covering both
locules or two anthers representing the laterals of the inner whorl fertile;
staminode shield-shaped or none or all the three anthers representing the inner
whorl fertile . Pollinia usually compact or sectile, rarely granular, of monads
or tetrads, often partially sterile forming caudicles of different shapes and
structures; or pollen grains not forming pollinium, powdery or gathered in a
sticky and paste-like mass. Staminodes, representing the lateral anthers of the
inner whorl, rarely becoming free, finger or wing-like, usually connected in
the column part, forming structures of various forms, sizes and functions.
Fruit capsular, sometimes fleshy. Seeds tiny, adapted to anemochory,
exceptionally to zoochory or hydrochory.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Orchids Of The Lip
The lip is the most prominent member of the perianth. It is
the highly specialized floral part of the flower and is extremely complex and
variable. Sometimes it is broadly attached to the base of the column or over
its entire length rigidly and therefore immobile. It may be attached to the tip
of the columnfoot immovably or loosely hinged to it and is exceedingly mobile.
It may be sessil or short or long-clawed . The lip may be
membranous and antrose i.e. directed upward and forwar or thickly fleshy and
strongly reflexed; or may be recurved only at the tip. Very often it is
porrect. The basal, middle and distal portions of a lip are often
distinguishable and termed as hypochile, mesochile and epichile respectively.
The hypochile is occasionally laterally stetched backwards as a lobe known as
auricle.
The lip may sometimes be undivided and then usually concave,
ventricose, cymbiform porrect.
Occasionally as in Androcorys pugioniformis, the unlobed narrowly
oblong-triangular lip with a broad base is excavated into two deep oval,
parallel pits. More often it is divided into three or more lobes or segments,
commonly at the base. Very often the lip is divided at the middle or at the
apex. The outer lobes are known as the lateral lobes or sidelobes. The lobes
may themselves be entire, lobed or deeply divided. The lobes or the segments of
the lip may be broad. The lateral lobes may be erect or spreading. It may be
entire (Pachystoma) or of fimbriate to filiform segments .
Sometimes the lateral lobes of the lip or the entire are convolute, embracing the column and
giving the lip a trumpet shape. Often the lateral lobes are short and
indistinct. The midlobe may be large and spreading or small and tongue-like (Pecteilis). It is
generally entire or sometimes divided into two The edges of the midlobe are
often wavy, recurved or crisped Sometimes the lip is deeply bifid or two-lobed
at the apex as in Listera pinetorum, Neottia listeroides etc. But at times it
is bibbed along the length as in Cephalanthera damasonium. The space between
the lateral lobes is termed as disc.
The inner face of the lip, especially at the basal region or
on the disc, is provided with decorations of various kinds that are intended to
serve as guide-markings on the landing platform
for the pollinators. These surface features are growths usually in the
shape of longitudinal crests , keels , lamellae or may be of various kinds of
thickenings or rows of papillar warts . The form of the callosities may be
simple but may be occasionally complex. In several species like Eulophia
graminea, Pleione hookeriana the outgrowths are in the shape of fat hairs along
the veins. Occasionally there are movable hairs, which catch slightest movement
of the wind.
The lip at the base may have two lateral tubercles or knobs
without other decorations on the lamina. The upper surface of the lip becomes
papillose, as in many species under Bulbophyllum, Cirrhopetalum, etc. Sometimes
as in Monomeria longipes, the lip is very puberulose, the distal half densely
and shortly stiff hairy. Often the lip is provided with coloured markings,
blotches or stripes.
The lip may be variously shaped like a boat , a funnel , a
slipper or shoe. The base of the lip is often variously saccate or has a
sac-like to tubular extension — a hollow appendage, called the spur. It usually
bears glandular tissues inside and secretes sectar dear to the insects.
The spur is variously shaped like globose , conical ,
clavat, straight or bent to strongly curved forwards . It is shallow as in
Chiloschista, Geodorum, and Thrixspermum; deep, basin or jug-shaped as in
Gastrochilus and Pomatocalpa etc.; long tube-like as in many Calanthe,
Habenaria etc. Sometimes it is short and hidden by the lateral sepals or
conspicuously long upto and In a few cases like the terrestrial Corybas,
Satyrium or the epiphytic Diplocentrum the lip has two collateral spurs.
The spur is often provided inside with calli at the bottom;
papillae and glands, stalked or not ; hairs warts or with various other
projections on its back or front walls Cleisostoma, Pomatocalpa, Staurochilus.
Rarely it is septate or has a fleshy transverse growth at the mouth of the
opening. These thickenings or projections on the inner side of the spur furnish
important characteristics for identification. In Cottonia peduncularis, an
epiphytic vandaceous orchid from peninsular India, and extending to Sri Lanka,
the lip in its structure, colour and texture remarkably resemble a certain
bumble-bee. This is a typical case of mimicry — a feature not uncommon with
orchids.
Orchids Of Subtropical Zone
Mixed forests bearing tall and medium sized trees with thick
canopy of leaves characterize this zone. The moss covered tree trunks and
branches, as also rock surfaces nearing watercourses, form ideal habitats for
orchids. Heavy summer precipitation as also precipitation in the form of dew
during night and early morning is the character of this region. During summer
the day temperature may remain that
drops down to about at night. Winter here is cool and dry; the day temperature
ranges between with a cooler night.
Relative humidity during the rainy season remains Some of the best-known ornamental epiphytic
orchids are found in this zone. This zone can broadly be divided into the
following habitats.
Forest Vegetation
The mixed forests and secondary scrub vegetation forms major
area under this region. Most of the popular epiphytic orchids with large and
handsome flowers favour this vegetation. These are Coelogyne, Cymbidium,
Dendrobium, Thunia (all sympodials); Arachnite, Renanthera, Vanda (all
monopodials); the famous blue vanda (Vanda coerulea) and the red vanda
(Renanthera imschootiana) come here. The other epiphytic genera are
Bulbophyllum, Eria, Liparis, Oberonia (sympodial); Cleisostoma, Phalaenopsis
(rnonopodial). There are many terrestrial genera like Calanthe, Crepidium,
Liparis, Malaxis, Phaius that prefer damp forest floors, inhabit here.
Ca!carious rocks
There are some terrestrial genera like Paphiopedilum whose
distributions are determined by the mineral contents of the substrate.
Limestone or dolomite rocks when located on banks of perennial rivers or
waterfalls under thick vegetation with high rainfall provide ideal habitat for
the popular lady- slipper orchids. Paphiopedilum fairrieanum, F hirsutissimum,
P. insigne, P. spicerianum etc. grow on the percipes and crevices of rock
cliffs or rock faces on riverbanks.
Clay banks
Several terrestrial orchids like Anthogonium gracile,
Crepidium acuminatum as also several habenaria allied genera like Habenaria,
Pecteilis and Peristylus usually prefer clay banks located inside vegetation.
Bamboo and Palm
thickets
The bamboo and palm thickets are a different type of
vegetation and provide shelter to many popular terrestrial orchids such as
Calanthe, Phaius, and the well-known lady slipper orchid Paphiopedilum venustum.
Other terrestrial orchids growing here are several species under Eulophia and
Nervilia.
Humus-rich Forest
floors
On the forest floors are accumulated fallen leaves, twigs,
and other vegetative debries. On decaying these make the top soil humus-rich,
porus and light. Soil of such kind near the banks of perennial watercourses
under shade remains moist and forms ideal habitat for many terrestrial orchids
of evergreen in nature. Important among these are the jewel orchids, which
comprise species from genera like Anoectochilus, Goodyera and Zeuxine. The
substrate is also much suitable for the saprophytic orchids that are known to
thrive on decayed vegetation. Several saprophytic species under the genera
Cymb, Epipogium, Erythorchis, Eulophia , Galeola, Gastrodia occur here.
Several species under the terrestrial genera Calanthe, Cheirostylis, Crepidium,
Eulophia, Phaius also favour such habitats.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Introduction Of Orchid
Orchids are renowned for their exquisitely beautiful and
colorful flowers for which they are favourites of the flower lovers.
Biologically complex plants as they are, they have equally drawn the attention
of the botanists. The structure of the orchid plant as also the flower is very
interesting. These are herbaceous plants with different growth habits. Some are
terrestrial, i.e. grow on soil preparing their own food; some others derive
their nutrient requirement directly from decaying material in the substrate and are saprophytes. But the majorities of them adopt a
superterranean or aerial mode of living over trunks or branches of other
plants, and thus, are known as epiphytes. They however prepare their own food
and are never dependent on the host.
Orchids are very widely distributed over the globe except in
the extreme hot or cold regions. To accommodate to the widely varying range of
environmental factors, in a very large geographical area, the vegetative habits
in the terrestrial forms have undergone enormous changes. The aerial existence
of the epiphytic forms, although distributed in a comparatively smaller area
than the terrestrials, too, necessitated highly varying modification in their vegetative
forms. The plant structure in orchids is thus remarkably diverse and few other
plant families match their vegetative diversity.
Orchids are a strange group of plants standing apart from
the rest of the plant families. This is how they are. An orchid fruit contains
inside it innumerable dust-like non-endospermic seeds. The peculiar mode of
germination of these seeds require the association usually with mycorrhizal
fungi. The presence of air space in the seed makes it lighter and buoyant to be
dispersed over a wide geographical area. Orchid roots are covered with spongy
dead cells called velamen, which protects the inner conductive channel, absorbs
moisture from the air and clings to the host tree securing a strong position
for the plant.
Flowers of orchids are found in incredible ranges of size,
shape, colour and ornamentation. But it is the mode of construction of the
flower and its efficiency in successfully carrying out the intended functions
through the various floral organs that render orchids the wondrous creation of
nature. The orchid flower has evolved many complexities for perfecting cross-
pollination. This is easily noticeable in its flower structure. For example,
the otherwise inconspicuous sepals have become colored like petals and one of the
three petals, known as the lip, is variously shaped and decorated. By an
extreme torsion or twisting of the pedicellate ovary through an angle of flowering, the lip occupies a frontal
position so as to serve as a landing platform for the visiting pollinator.
The pollen grains are agglutinated into neat little packets
known as pollinia. The pollinia aim at fertilizing a very large number of
ovules while avoiding unnecessary wastage of the pollens. The pollinia is
provided with accessories by which it gets attached to the body of the
pollinator. It is kept inside a pouch on top of a stump-like structure known as
the column, in such an easily accessible position that, the foraging insect
while probing the flower, would not fail to dislocate the pollinia and carry it
way. The column has evolved through the fusion of the style and the filament
The stigma, the female receptive organ, is suitably crafted, usually, on face
of the column. The column is a unique and characteristic structure of the
orchid flower.
An interesting feature of the orchid flower is the striking
resemblance of many of them to various animal forms like bee, wasp, butterfly,
moth, scorpion, frog, dove, tiger or even man (man orchid). Sometimes they
adopt odd posture and attain popular names such as laughing orchid, soldier
orchid, flying duck orchid and ghost orchid.
The diversity in their structure, the aerial existence and
capability of survival in varying climatic condition show their adaptive
excellence. This explains why Orchidaceae, largest among the flowering families
with around successful and advanced in the plant kingdom. As an advanced
family, orchids have tolerated wide crosses to allow free gene flow across
specific limits, within and between the genera, to enable them move faster by
strides in the path of evolution. Production of new species by hybridization is
the speediest form of their evolution. Natural hybrids among orchids have been
reported from early days of orchid collection. But it is the stupendously large
number of man-made hybrids that have surpassed the scale of imagination. The
artificial hybrids have flowers more beautiful than anything found in the
nature. This aspect has been taken advantage of in the horticultural pursuit
for better quality of flowers. Orchid cut-flowers, with better keeping quality
(flowers remain fresh for months), now a days abundantly available, has become
a very successful and alluring trade in the global market of floriculture.
Orchid Intra-familial Evolution
Orchidaceae as seen today has developed from a primitive
stock and traversed through several lines of evolution at various stages of
geological and geographical changes. Unlike in many plant families orchids do
not have a fossil record. However several features in the living plants
themselves, less complicated as they, are indicate the evolutionary track in
this highly advanced group of plants.
The present day orchids are almost all monandrous i.e. with
a single fertile anther. These have been derived from their counterpart with
two or three fertile anthers, which are considered to be primitive. The
evolutionary trend from the former form to the latter form can be seen in the
vegetative form, floral structure (like the formation and the characters of the
reproductive organs in the pollinia), the seed structure etc.
The orchids started living as terrestrials. In due course of
time probably competetion for food in the land prompted some of them to migrate
to the nearby bare tree trunks and branches for a spacious accommodation. The
epiphytes were thus born at a later stage. These gradually perfected their
modification in the several organs, mostly in the stem and the leaf, for better
living.
Like in the general monocots, in the primitive orchids the
leaves were mainly arranged spirally along the stem. The leaves gradually got
reduced in numbers and they were arranged distichously and became articulate.
Storage tissues were developed in the groups where it was necessary to store
food, by making the leaves thick and leathery. The stem also developed special
tissues for storage of food and became fleshy. In the terrestrials corms,
tuberoids and rootstocks were the result of modification of the stems. In
course of time the primitive multi-noded corms (Acanthephippium, Calanthe) gave
rise to a form with a single node (Didicea, Tainia). In the epiphytic the
sympodial form with uniformly thickened multinoded stem in Dendrobium, Eria and
Thunia etc., gave rise to stems with a single node as in Bulbophyllum,
Pholidota, etc.
The sympodial growth form of the stem with a limited or
defmite annual growth and with formation of new lateral stem every year gave
rise to the monopodial form of stem with unlimited or indefinite growth and a
single growing point. Vanilla is the only terrestrial genus that is an
extensive creeper with monopodial growth form. The usual terminal inflorescence
was transformed to the lateral form. In the advanced monopodial form, lateral
inflorescence became the rule.
In the orchid flower organization of the anther has played a
very crucial role. In the immediate predecesser of Orchidaceae the six anthers
were arranged in two alternating whorls of three each. The primitive orchids
were basically of two types: (i) where the anthers of the outer whorl were
suppressed - the triandrae and (ii) where the anthers in the inner whorl were
suppressed — the diandrae in the lady's slipper orchids. With advancement there
was further reduction of the anther and the monandrous form with only one
fertile anther in the outer whorl came into being. Barring a few genera like
Apostasia, Cypripedium and Paphiopedilum, all other genera found in India are
monandrae.
The pollen grains in orchids, as has been said earlier, are
united to definite masses called pollinia. The unicellular pollen grains have
been variously united to give rise to simple, soft, mealy or granular pollinia,
to sectile pollinia; or waxy to hard pollinia, naked or with various pollinial
appendages, in the most advanced form. These characters are used in
classification of Orchidaceae.
In the primitive form the single-celled pollen grains are
free and contained in the four-locular anther in Apostasia (monads) or held by
a viscous fluid as in Paphiopedilum and Cypripedium. In most cases the pollen
grains are bundled into small units called tetrads. These tetrads in the
primitive form are held by elastic threads and remain in a mealy or granular
form under Spiranthoideae . Sometimes they are organized into granular packets
known as sectile pollinia. Bases of these packets are prolonged into short or
long tails that are pollinial in origin. Sectile pollinia are met in
Spiranthoideae and Orchidoideae.
From a soft consistency in the primitive forms, the pollen
tetrads tend to become gradually hard. In the less advanced form the tetrads
are collected to firm masses called waxy pollinia. There are usually eight
clavate pollen masses divided completely halfway between top and bottom, four
masses in each cell, two smaller than the other two. This is met in
Epidendroideae under the terrestrial genera Acanthephippium, Calanthe, Phaius
etc. The pollinia is prolonged at base and held by a viscous or a pad-like mass
formed from part of the rostellum. In the epiphytic form these waxy pollinia
remain naked without prolongation or any appendages as in Eria (eight pollinia)
or Bulbophyllum, Dendrobium, Oberonia .
In the process of advancement there was a tendency for
further reduction of the number of pollen masses in the pollinium while getting
harder. This is the case with Vandoideae. In the first case the pollinia got
reduced to four laterally compressed discoid masses by the loss of four
terminal masses. The pollinia here may be provided with appendages like
caudicle, stipe or viscidium. The pollen masses were further reduced to hard or
bony masses. They were usually notched, porate, foveolate or variously cleft;
occasionally they were entire i.e. solid masses. These masses were provided
with a well- developed appendage — the pollen kit consisting of caudicle, stipe
and viscidium.
The epiphytic form in orchids is of later development. In
this the monopodial growth form is of recent origin. Common ancestral form
among the monopodial is a plant with strap-shaped or channelled thick leaves
with usually large flowers. The lip here is without much ornamentation and the
pollen apparatus is simple as seen in Vanda. From this form are evolved the
advanced genera with reduction in size of the plant, leaf and of the flower.
The lip developed complex outgrowths or callosities of various types; the
pollen apparatus became more complex and specialized, the notched pollinia
giving way to solid ones. With the complexity in floral organs, the flower has
a tendency to become ephemeral. Chiloschista, Taeniophyllum etc. are a few
genera where such reduction in the size of the plant, leaves and flower is
observed. The plants have become aphyllous, the roots taking the functions of
the leaves.
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