Cambridge’s botanic gardens is
hosting an exotic and unusual orchid exhibition in a display in the Glasshouse
Range.
The orchid festival focuses on the orchids of the
Indian state of Sikkim in the foothills of the Himalayas.
A pair of orchid
trees laden with orchids from hot valleys and cool slopes will be constructed
in the corridor and central Tropical Rainforest display, while orchids from
around the globe will be woven throughout the glasshouse plantings.
The Tropical Wetlands house will focus on orchid anatomy and adaptations, with the centrepiece a spider’s web of Vanda orchids, suspended from the roof.
What makes this exhibit so
unusual is that it was conceived and designed by members of Writhlington Orchid
Club. A team of six students and their inspirational teacher Simon Pugh–Jones travelled
five thousand miles to the Himalayan Indian state and explored remote forests
to record the epiphytic micro-habitats where key orchid species grow in the
wild.
According to the local press, their aim was to identify the altitude, the type of forest, the part of the canopy, even the amount of moss present around the roots.
Orchids
face many threats in the wild, and conservation is a key issue which will be highlighted in the
Continents Apart House.
One such example is the East Anglian fen orchid
(Liparis loeslii), the subject of a conservation and reintroduction
project that staff at the garden are working on.
By Pamela Kelt
Comments
Post a Comment