Orchids for Spring

by Janette Boyd

Title

Orchids for Spring

Artist

Janette Boyd

Medium

Photograph - Photo/texture

Description

Photo of blooming orchids for sale found Farmer's Market in downtown Austin, Texas.

Featured in the following FAA Groups:
*Comfortable Art
*Weekly Fun for All
*Loving the Color Purple
*Your Favorite Image
*Visions of Spring
*Paradise of Orchids
*History Around Us
*Beauty
**************************************************************************************
The scent of orchids is frequently analyzed by perfumers (using headspace technology and gas-liquid chromatography) to identify potential fragrance. Orchids of all types have also often been sought by collectors of both species and hybrids.

The dried seed pods of one orchid genus, Vanilla (especially Vanilla planifolia), are commercially important as flavoring in baking, for perfume manufacture and aromatherapy. The underground tubers of terrestrial orchids [mainly Orchis mascula (early purple orchid)] are ground to a powder and used for cooking, such as in the hot beverage salep or in the Turkish frozen treat dondurma. The name salep has been claimed to come from the Arabic expression ḥasyu al-tha`lab, "fox testicles", but it appears more likely the name comes directly from the Arabic name saḥlab. The similarity in appearance to testes naturally accounts for salep being considered an aphrodisiac. The dried leaves of Jumellea fragrans are used to flavor rum on Reunion Island. Some saprophytic orchid species of the group Gastrodia produce potato-like tubers and were consumed as food by native peoples in Australia and can be successfully cultivated, notably Gastrodia sesamoides. Wild stands of these plants can still be found in the same areas as early aboriginal settlements, such as Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park in Australia. Aboriginal peoples located the plants in habitat by observing where bandicoots had scratched in search of the tubers after detecting the plants underground by scent.

Orchids have been used in traditional medicine in an effort to treat many diseases and ailments. They have been used as a source of herbal remedies in China since 2800 BC. Gastrodia elata is one of the three orchids listed in the earliest known Chinese Materia Medica (Shennon bencaojing) (c. 100 AD).

Orchids have many associations with symbolic values. For example, the orchid is the City Flower of Shaoxing, China. Cattleya mossiae is the national Venezuelan flower, while Cattleya trianae is the national flower of Colombia. Vanda 'Miss Joaquim' is the national flower of Singapore. Orchids native to the Mediterranean are depicted on the Ara Pacis in Rome, until now the only known instance of orchids in ancient art, and the earliest in European art.

Uploaded

February 24th, 2014

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