WaxLip orchids
Wax Lip orchid, Glossodia major
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Liliopsida Order: Asparagales Family: Orchidaceae Genus: Glossodia R.Br.

Glossodia are a small family of mostly purple orchids from Australia. Plants are living Organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. The flowering plants or angiosperms ( Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta) are the most widespread group Monocotyledons or monocots are one of two major groups of Flowering plants (angiosperms that are traditionally recognised the other being Dicotyledons Asparagales is an order of Flowering plants The order must include the family Asparagaceae, but other families included in the order have varied markedly Robert Brown FRS ( 21 December, 1773 &ndash 10 June, 1858) was a Scottish scientist who is acknowledged as the leading botanist In spring vast numbers of Glossodia major flower on uncleared land.

Cultivation

Glossodia are hard to maintain in cultivation, growing from seed in-vitro has yielded very poor results, and plants rescued from land clearing usually last only a few years. This is most likely due to the complete reliance on a symbiotic fungus for food. The orchid forms no roots and gets all its food from interacting with mycorrhizal fungus through its 'collar'. A mycorrhiza (Greek for fungus roots coined by Frank 1885 typically seen in the plural forms mycorrhizae or mycorrhizas) is a symbiotic (occasionally A reasonably successful solution to this is to grow new plants in the same pot from the produced seed each year. This usually requires hand pollenation but can lead to a reasonably large collection of plants over many years.