Orchid Weekend!

Happy beginning of the week.

The carnivals are over, they were very lively, there were many events, some bands, and artists performed in the city, the exhibitions were not lacking either. It was quite good, compared to the last years.

Before we used to visit almost everything that came up in the city, circus, carousel, exhibitions, and the cattle fair, we even went to the bullring to see the dwarfs with the bulls. But, one of the things that I think we almost always attended was the exhibition of the orchids in the city.

Orchid Society of Merida.

It is an event where all the fans, growers, curious, and public in general are concentrated to appreciate the orchids and I must say also other species of plants or trees are exhibited.

I remember that there was always a kind of election for our favorite flowers, so we had to be very careful with all of them so that at the end of the tour we could choose the orchids that we liked the most. Although we always visited the place and chose some that we liked, we never knew the parameters to make a good choice. We only chose them by their colors, shapes, and sizes. Of course, I don't remember anyone explaining to us what things to appreciate or not to appreciate about these flowers. I guess, next year, after evaluating this, I will be better informed to make better decisions.

However, for this last attendance, we were not told about the election, the votes, or these things and neither were the exhibitors, to explain to us about their plants. Perhaps it was for attending on the last day. Another change is that the place where this exhibition is usually held differed. I remember that before the exhibition was in a long corridor, going back and forth in that place where it was always done. On the other hand, for this last edition, the copies were few and they all fit on a single wall of a room.

Despite this, the specimens that were presented attracted a lot of attention. And, best of all, I did not miss capturing these plants in photographs. Perhaps they will serve as a point of comparison for a future occasion when I can attend these shows.

One of the things you may notice about these plants is the great variety of species that exist. Well in this post, you can notice only a few species. You will be able to recognize an orchid in the environment by its particular colors and shapes around the environment where it grows. In addition, they always seem to be attached to another medium such as a trunk, a rock, or a tree. Because of this, they may seem parasitic, but they are not. At home, we have had some and they can spend years anchored to the same piece of wood. They also vary in size, they can be very small to the point that their flowers are not easily recognized by the naked eye or as large as a tree.

This is one of the ones I liked the most. What would you call this orchid?

You may notice, so many "figures" and colors in the species. This is key to their reproduction. As they need a pollinating agent (bee, flies, birds, mosquitoes...) they have to look extremely attractive to them. These, when landing on the flowers, the pollen falls on their bodies, flying and moving to other places are responsible for spreading the seeds of orchids and if conditions are right they will germinate. Of course, in most cases this is a symbiotic relationship, so pollinators also get rewards in the form of nectar, oils, or perhaps parts of the flower itself.

I want to insist that it would have been extraordinary to see the process of choosing the best orchid or orchids presented in the exhibition. Surely, one would analyze them from another point of view and perhaps could better recognize the effort that their growers made to bring them to that place. For me, at that time and even now, they are all winners.

As you may have noticed, what caught my attention the most about these plants is their flowers, I think I took a few of them full-bodied. Of course, although I would like to present them all. I think these are enough for today, so I hope you like them. But, don't doubt that I will share the others. So, you are more than welcome to appreciate them in future posts.

Thanks for visiting!