Darwin’s obsession blooms at NYBG

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We all know Charles Darwin as the father of evolution, but it turns out his revolutionary theory was not his only passion. In fact, the majority of his writings were dedicated not to the origin of species, but the study of orchids.

“Darwin actually published and wrote about plants more than any other subject,” explained Marc Hachadourian, the orchid curator for the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). “He was a wonderful observational botanist and studied the pollination of many different types of orchids… which he grew in the green house of his home.”

History’s fixation with orchids is the subject of the NYBG’s 14th annual Orchid Show. Entitled “Orchidelirium,” the show captures how many like Darwin, particularly in the Victorian era, were so entranced with the beauty of the flowers that the determination to possess the rarest and the fairest of them became a widespread phenomenon. 

From the deadly adventures of orchid hunters in the far reaches of the world to the scientific infatuation with the flowers in the west, the intricate story of the orchid’s global popularity is told throughout the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. According to Mr. Hachadourian, people during the Victorian age spent tens of thousands of dollars by today’s standards on the flowers simply for the status.

“When you invited guests over to your home to impress them, it was not necessarily material objects as much as it was living objects, exotic orchids, rare palms,” he said. “These types of status things are really what drove this fever of the day for people to collect orchids.”

He explained that the psychopsis papilio, or the spider orchid, started the global obsession. Since the days of “orchidelirium,” science has uncovered close to 30,000 naturally occurring species and over 150,000 man-made hybrids. Orchids were still available in bulk at the time as well, with some shipments reporting of over half a million plants collected from South America alone.

Will Speros, New York Botanical Garden, Orchid Show
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