Orchids grow in three dimensions and exert influence on their immediate environment. They are not passive. They are host to many other organisms, not just their internal bacteria, the photosynthetic chloroplasts and energy-producing mitochondria. There are external partners like ants, or the moths I have found nesting and resting in the plant body. These organisms play roles that we can only speculate on. But we know they are intimately involved with the orchid entity. There are partners also that are neither endogenous nor wholly outside that hand out in layers of the roots. Fungi, nitrogen-fixing bacteria, yeasts. These microbial communities modulate the nutritional state of the orchid. So the orchid is not alone. It is host to, and partner with organisms large and small that boost its health and well being.
The orchid must obtain, distribute, and protect its water and nutritional resources. It is built to collect falling debris that decomposes and adds nutrients. It siphons water, absorbs water, circulates water in its body. Its leaves thicken with maturity and resemble a succulent more than a thin-leafed plant. The shape of the plant body allows for regions of increased humidity among the growing parts of the plant. Pockets of air and water vapor form. The orchid builds itself to make a swiss-cheese like environment where microhabitats of enhanced moisture and nutrition are protected. Wrinkles on the orchid body make for smaller areas of increased moisture. The shape of the orchid in three dimensions forms secreted areas small and large that store resources. This is why a cold wind is so bad for orchids. The storage crypts they make with their bodies are raided and scraped away by the wind.
The orchid grows in modules, like all plants. The modules are controlled by meristem cells that can split and develop into any kind of cell but the meristem tissue continues through the life of the module. It also produces hormones that control growth. There may be many modules to an orchid and the modules may have several meristematic regions, mostly concentrated around the pseudobulb.
Orchids also grow in a roughy linear fashion so there is a kind of “front” and “back” or “top” and “bottom” but these may be ill-defined relative to the shape of the plant. But there can be a “lead” meristem that controls the direction the plant is growing. This control is exerted in response to light, orientation, water, and nutrient availability.
The orchid is active in its environment, not passive. It shapes the environment around it, encompasses that environment, builds water and nutrient catchments, anchoring systems, exploratory extensions, and reproductive structures. As an epiphyte floating through time and space in a three-dimensional body the orchid shapes its habitat and modifies its surroundings.
The orchid must obtain, distribute, and protect its water and nutritional resources. It is built to collect falling debris that decomposes and adds nutrients. It siphons water, absorbs water, circulates water in its body. Its leaves thicken with maturity and resemble a succulent more than a thin-leafed plant. The shape of the plant body allows for regions of increased humidity among the growing parts of the plant. Pockets of air and water vapor form. The orchid builds itself to make a swiss-cheese like environment where microhabitats of enhanced moisture and nutrition are protected. Wrinkles on the orchid body make for smaller areas of increased moisture. The shape of the orchid in three dimensions forms secreted areas small and large that store resources. This is why a cold wind is so bad for orchids. The storage crypts they make with their bodies are raided and scraped away by the wind.
The orchid grows in modules, like all plants. The modules are controlled by meristem cells that can split and develop into any kind of cell but the meristem tissue continues through the life of the module. It also produces hormones that control growth. There may be many modules to an orchid and the modules may have several meristematic regions, mostly concentrated around the pseudobulb.
Orchids also grow in a roughy linear fashion so there is a kind of “front” and “back” or “top” and “bottom” but these may be ill-defined relative to the shape of the plant. But there can be a “lead” meristem that controls the direction the plant is growing. This control is exerted in response to light, orientation, water, and nutrient availability.
The orchid is active in its environment, not passive. It shapes the environment around it, encompasses that environment, builds water and nutrient catchments, anchoring systems, exploratory extensions, and reproductive structures. As an epiphyte floating through time and space in a three-dimensional body the orchid shapes its habitat and modifies its surroundings.
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