The Singapore Orchid Festival, held in the lush acreage of Singapore Botanic Gardens, had been organised to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Orchid Society of South East Asia and there were exhibitors, judges and enthusiasts from across the world. The Japanese had created an ambitious campfire tableau, featuring epidendrums with leaping flame-bright tongues. Row upon row of luscious round-pet
First found in 1888, its discovery helped to trigger the orchid delirium of the 19th century, when wealthy collectors - many of them British - sent plant hunters across the world in pursuit of rare species. It was perilous and highly competitive work and the plantsmen frequently vanished or died through accident, fever or foul play. They also drove many orchid species to the edge of extinction.
DENDROBIUM GYULA HORN
This hybrid was named after His Excellency Mr. Gyula Horn, the former prime minister of Hungary on the occasion of his visit to the National Orchid Garden on 18th April 1997.
LANTANA CAMARA
Lantana camara, also known as Spanish Flag or West Indian Lantana, is a species of flowering plant in the verbena family, Verbenaceae, that is native to the American tropics. Its native range includes Mexico, Central America, the Greater Antilles, The Bahamas, Colombia, and Venezuela. It is believed to be indigenous to the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the United States. Lantana camara has been introduced into other parts of the world as an ornamental plant and is considered an invasive species in many tropical areas.
ARISAEMA TRIPHYLLUM(INDIAN TURNIP)
The spathe, known in this plant as "the pulpit" wraps around and covers over and contain a spadix ("Jack"), covered with tiny flowers of both sexes. The flowers are unisexual, in small plants most if not all the flowers are male, as plants age and grow larger the spadix produces more female flowers.
The fruit are smooth, shiny green, 1 cm wide berries clustered on the thickened spadix. The fruits ripen in late summer and fall, turning a bright red color before the plants go dormant. Each berry produces 1 to 5 seeds typically, the seeds are white to light tan in color, rounded, often with flattened edges and a short sharp point at the top and a rounded bottom surface. If the seeds are freed from the berry they will germinate the next spring, producing a plant with a single rounded leaf. Seedlings need three or more years of growth before they become large enough to flower. In addition the plant is not self pollinating since the male flowers on a specific plant have already matured and died before the female flowers of that same plant are mature. So the female flowers need to be pollinated by the male flowers of a different plant.
VANDA MISS JOAQUIM
Vanda Miss Joaquim was chosen as Singapore's national flower in 1981. The designation of a national flower was part of an overall effort to foster national pride and identity.
strong inflorescence of Vanda Miss Joaquim may carry up to 12 buds, usually with four flowers open at a time. Each flower is about 5 cm across and 6 cm tall, and as is the case with its parents, the petals are twisted around so that the back surface faces front. The two petals and the top sepal are rosy-violet, and the lateral sepals are a pale mauve. The lip is very large and broad and the middle lobe extends out loke a fan. It is coloured violet- rose, merging into a contrasting fiery orange at the centre. Over the orange patch, the lip is finely spotted with dark purple. It is free-flowering.
Vanda Miss Joaquim requires full sunlight, free air movement, high humidity and heavy fertilising to achieve optimum growth and flowering. It needs support to grow straight and tall but it flowers only when the top of its stem rises above the support. It is a robust, sun loving plant with slender stems best grown in beds against post supports.
FLAMING BEAUTY
Botanical Name: Carphalea kirondron
Common Name: Flaming Beauty
Family name: Rubiaceae
Plant type: Indoor ornamental shrub of medium height (1.5 – 3 meters), originated from Madagascar. Mainly, a tropical bush!
Light: Prefers full sun, but can tolerate semi-shade
Moisture: Requires regular watering moderately
Soil: Grows best in consistently moist soil, preferably compost-enriched! This Flaming Beauty can be grown in containers or ground.
POLLINATION
Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilization and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains, which contain the male gametes (sperm) to where the female gamete(s) are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself. The receptive part of the carpel is called a stigma in the flowers of angiosperms. The receptive part of the gymnosperm ovule is called the micropyle. Pollination is a necessary step in the reproduction of flowering plants, resulting in the production of offspring that are genetically diverse.
The study of pollination brings together many disciplines, such as botany, horticulture, entomology, and ecology. The pollination process as an interaction between flower and vector was first addressed in the 18th century by Christian Konrad Sprengel. It is important in horticulture and agriculture, because fruiting is dependent on fertilisation, which is the end result of pollination.
Biotic Pollination
More commonly, the process of pollination requires pollinators: organisms that carry or move the pollen grains from the anther to the receptive part of the carpel or pistil. This is biotic pollination. The various flower traits (and combinations thereof) that differentially attract one type of pollinator or another are known as pollination syndromes.
There are roughly 200,000 varieties of animal pollinators in the wild, most of which are insects. Entomophily, pollination by insects, often occurs on plants that have developed colored petals and a strong scent to attract insects such as, bees, wasps and occasionally ants (Hymenoptera), beetles (Coleoptera), moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera), and flies (Diptera). In Zoophily, pollination is done by vertebrates such as birds and bats, particularly, hummingbirds, sunbirds, spiderhunters, honeyeaters, and fruit bats. Plants adapted to using bats or moths as pollinators typically have white petals and a strong scent, while plants that use birds as pollinators tend to develop red petals and rarely develop a scent (few birds have a sense of smell).
Self Pollination
It is the transference of the pollen grains from the anther to the stigma of either the same or of another flower borne on the same plant.Autogamy
The pollen grains are transferred from the anther to the stigma of the same flower. It occurs in bisexual flowers.
Geitonogamy
Flower is pollinated by pollen from another flower on the same plant.
Cross Pollination
It is the transference of the pollen grains from the anther of one flower to the stigma of another flower borne on a different plant of the same species. It is also known as allogamy or xenogamy.
Cross pollination requires the help of abiotic or biotic agencies such as wind, water, insects, birds, bats, snails and other animals.
Anemophily or Wind Pollination
It is the simplest form of pollination, through the agency of wind. The wind pollinated flowers show the following characteristics.
a) The flowers are unisexual
Example: Poplars
b) Stamens are freely exposed with versatile anthers
Example: Cereals
c) The pollen grains are light, smooth, dry and not easily wetted by rain.
d) The pollen grains are produced in enormous quantities.
Example: A single flower of Cannabis produces over 5,00,000 pollen grains.
e) The stigmas are large, feathery and well exposed to catch the pollen grains.
f) The flowers are small, inconspicuous with no colour, odour or nectar
Examples: Coconut, palm, maize, grasses etc.
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