HomeThe Chinese started cultivating orchids early (up to 3000 years ago). It's unclear whether they were interested in the medical (and drug) uses or simply the esthetical nature of orchids. These plants have been highly appreciated for the use of them in herbal medicine.
Chinese writings dating back over a thousand years give advice on how certain orchids were to be cared for. They knew how to treat diseases, how to water, and how to feed the plants.
Rome was expanding its boarders while the Mediterranean orchids were studied and highlighted. The orchids were used for a variety of medical purposes. The shape of the flower was studied and assigned to certain characteristics of health. It was thought that the orchids would benefit the consumer. The word orchid comes from the greek 'orchis', meaning testicle. The orchids of Orchis have bulbs looking like testicles.
There are som medical benefits with many orchids. The teperate species found in Europe are useful for treatments of epilepsia. In America, the Indians used orchids long before the Europeans dropped by. Vanilla was cultivated for its wonderful smell and for its taste.
During the 1700:s, Europe lead the kollonialism. The rich got a taste for rare and beautiful orchids. It didn't take long before the orchid was a status symbol for the rich. Private collectors organized their own expeditions to go and find new exiting orchids in the tropics. Not until 1800:s, the first orchids came in cultivation. Before that, everything had been poached from nature.
Hybrids are the result of crosses between species. A hybrid from two natural species is called an F1-hybrid. Some hybrids are given common-names; somethimes they're even named after a celebrity. Usually, one only sees hybrids in regular stores. These hybrids have been produced to be easy to care, to flower much and for a long period of time.
The first hybrids that reached the market were met by excitement and sceptisism. When the methods of growing orchids had developed enough, more and more elaborate crosses and experiments could be done. Cells can e.g. be treated with colchichin so that the meiosis is influenced to produce a cell with the double genomic set up. (Such a meiosis of haploid cells produces empty cells and diploid cells). Normal (diploid cells) that are treated like this, produce cells which often grow to plants showing more of the already existing traits. E.g. is the flower size often increased a lot. The method can be used to produce 'species' from F1-hybrids.
Choy Sin Hew (1999) Ancient Chinese orchid cultivation: A fresh look at an age-old practice Scientia Horticulturae 87 (2001) 1-10
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