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No flowering plant can capture the attention of humans, or stir their passions, in quite the way that orchids have. In past ages, orchids, have been hunted and collected in almost every part of the world. Today, millions of people remain devoted to the plant and its exotically beautiful flowers. 

Orchid is a common name for a family of one of the largest groups of flowering plants.  The family is distributed worldwide, absent only from Antarctica and the most arid desert zones of Eurasia.  The greatest diversity of orchids occurs in tropical regions.  Many of these tropical areas remain unexplored, as a result the estimated number of orchid species ranges from 15,000 to 25,000.

Orchids are characterized from other flowers by the combination of many floral characteristics, rather than a single unique characteristic.  Flowers of orchids are on stalks, as other flowers.  During the growth of the flower the stalk (pedicel) rotates so that the mature flower is upside down.  Of the flowers three sepals and three petals, all the sepals and two petals are usually similar to one another in color and shape. The remaining petal is always distinct and is called the labellum, usually larger and different in color and shape.  The labellum is often lobed or cupped, acting as a landing platform for the pollinator.  It may attract the pollinator through particular color patterns and shapes.

The sexual organs of the orchid flower, the pistil and stamens, are fused into a structure called the column located opposite the labellum.  Male orchids only have one stamen, and in most orchids produces only one anther.  In a few orchids two anther are produced.  The pollen, unlike most flowers, is not granular but is aggregated together in masses or sacs.  Three pollen receptive areas, called stigmatic lobes are located near the anther.  Only two of these stigmatic lobes are functional.  The ovary is located below the flowering parts and is surrounded by pedicel tissue.  It contains many ovules, egg bearing structures that mature into seeds.  The seeds are small, as many as 2 million of these can be produced from a single orchid seed pod.  Orchids, unlike most flowering plants have no food storage tissue.

The orchid flowers are pollinated by a variety of flying animals, resulting in floral structures with adaptations to various pollinators.  About half of all orchid species are pollinated by bees.  Moth, butterflies, flies, birds, and other pollinating agents make up the rest.  Many orchid species have adapted to a specific type of insect as it pollinator. 

A great variety of orchid forms exist demonstrating their wide range of habitats they occupy.  About half are epiphytes, growing on other plants for support.  Some orchids are parasitic and others live on decaying vegetation.  Growers have produced thousands of new forms of orchids through hybridization.