My Oncidium Orchid and the Vanilla Orchid

My Oncidium orchid won first prize last Sunday at my Orchid society. A picture was requested by one of the followers of this blog so here it is:

Oncidium orchid

Now since this is a food blog I thought I would also point out that Vanilla comes from an orchid. This is what the American Orchid Society says about the species:

Vanilla belongs to a group that includes some of the most primitive orchids. The name is derived from the Spanish word vainilla meaning small pod and is characterized by vine-like plants that climb and branch. A leaf and short roots that attach to tree trunks and branches are present at each node. The flowers, produced from congested racemes opposite the leaf axils, are large and showy and short-lived, but produced in succession so that the plant is attractive for weeks or even months at a time. Vanilla is one of the few orchids, other than those grown for the cut flower trade, with widespread commercial use. V. planifolia is widely cultivated for its long, slender, fleshy pods that are essential for the manufacture of vanilla flavoring.
In addition to its commercial value, the presence of fleshy, fragrant seed pods and seed with a hard seed coat may also prove indispensible to the understanding of orchid evolution. These characteristics suggest animal-mediated seed dispersal. Recent research has established the pollinator to be a Euglossine bee (also called Orchid Bees) consistent with the pollination of many very fragrant orchids in the neotropics. However, it has also been reported that the seed capsules are eaten by bats thereby effecting seed dispersal.
The pantropical yet isolated distribution of Vanilla, coupled with the ephemeral nature of the flowers has given rise to significant confusion as to the number of species in the genus.

Vanilla Orchid

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