Orchids at Monarch Coffee Farm
Once upon a time, flower design used to be a hobby of mine. I enjoyed designing and assembling beautiful arrangements with the guidance of a good friend in Woodland. Orchids, in tropical wedding bouquets, are a favorite for many brides. They are eye-catching and make a big statement.
On my walks around the farm, I can usually find a few bright and colorful orchids popping. The trip down memory lane, when I stumble across them, brings me great joy.
Have you had a chance to see orchids growing in the wild? They like to find spots that have a favorable medium, where they have put down their sparse roots. In the rock walls, rotting tree fern trunks, and even in the rain gutters! They grow pretty much in any habitat except in the glaciers.
Beautiful orchid found the perfect medium to grow - a dead tree fern
Hawaii is often associated with bright colored orchids-which are most commonly sold in nurseries, used in landscape & decorating, or strung into lei. These are all commercially cultivated. But in fact, Hawaii has 3 native orchids and they grow in islands’ forests and bogs (which Hawaiian Bogs are few in numbers).
Hawaii’s 3 native orchids are
Anoectochilus
Liparis hawaiensis
Plantanthera holochila (the rarest of them all)
This bright beauty found its place on the rock wall neighboring the butterfly breakfast garden.
Orchids have a tiny little seed - just a bit bigger than lint. It is believed, by researchers, that these little tiny seeds made their way from the Aleutian Islands to Hawaii stuck to migrating birds-likely gold plovers. The seeds, researchers believe, were the closest relative to another Platanthera species.
With thanks to biologists and the National Tropical Botanical Garden, seeds have been collected and sent to nurseries and labs with the hopes that they may be successfully propagated to re-establish the decreasing population. Preserving and protecting Hawaii’s biodiversity has to be a priority. One step at a time. From the mauka (mountain) to the makai (sea)- it’s going to be up to us and future generations. -Susy
