The Grandma has explained some concepts about The Superlative and she has remembered an old story about Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale, two of her favourite actors, and their relationship with orchids and Polynesian Islands while the family has been discussing about Kailani and Iván Stone relationship.
More information: The Superlative
The Orchidaceae are a diverse and widespread family of flowering plants, with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant, commonly known as the orchid family.
Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering plants. The Orchidaceae have about 28,000 currently accepted species, distributed in about 763 genera. The determination of which family is larger is still under debate, because verified data on the members of such enormous families are continually in flux.
Regardless, the number of orchid species is nearly equal to the number of bony fishes, more than twice the number of bird species, and about four times the number of mammal species.
The family encompasses about 6–11% of all seed plants. The largest genera are Bulbophyllum (2,000 species), Epidendrum (1,500 species), Dendrobium (1,400 species) and Pleurothallis (1,000 species).
It also includes Vanilla, the genus of the vanilla plant, the type genus Orchis, and many commonly cultivated plants such as Phalaenopsis and Cattleya. Moreover, since the introduction of tropical species into cultivation in the 19th century, horticulturists have produced more than 100,000 hybrids and cultivars.
Orchids are easily distinguished from other plants, as they share some very evident derived characteristics or synapomorphies. Among these are: bilateral symmetry of the flower (zygomorphism), many resupinate flowers, a nearly always highly modified petal (labellum), fused stamens and carpels, and extremely small seeds.
More information: Raymond Burr. Perry Mason, Ironside & Orchids
A study in the scientific journal Nature has hypothesised that the origin of orchids goes back much longer than originally expected. An extinct species of stingless bee, Proplebeia dominicana, was found trapped in Miocene amber from about 15-20 million years ago. The bee was carrying pollen of a previously unknown orchid taxon, Meliorchis caribea, on its wings. This find is the first evidence of fossilised orchids to date and shows insects were active pollinators of orchids then.
This extinct orchid, M. caribea, has been placed within the extant tribe Cranichideae, subtribe Goodyerinae, subfamily Orchidoideae. An even older orchid species, Succinanthera baltica, was described from the Eocene Baltic amber.
Genetic sequencing indicates orchids may have arisen earlier, 76 to 84 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous.
The overall biogeography and phylogenetic patterns of Orchidaceae show they are even older and may go back roughly 100 million years.
Using the molecular clock method, it was possible to determine the age of the major branches of the orchid family. This also confirmed that the subfamily Vanilloideae is a branch at the basal dichotomy of the monandrous orchids, and must have evolved very early in the evolution of the family.
Since this subfamily occurs worldwide in tropical and subtropical regions, from tropical America to tropical Asia, New Guinea and West Africa, and the continents began to split about 100 million years ago, significant biotic exchange must have occurred after this split, since the age of Vanilla is estimated at 60 to 70 million years.
Genome duplication occurred prior to the divergence of this taxon.
More information: Orchids
Love is an orchid which thrives
principally on hot air.
Myrtle Reed
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