Exotic Beauty (4) : Slipper orchid

Exotic Beauty (4) : Slipper orchid

The past 2 years I made several visits to the conservatories of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium where 10.000 (!) plant and tree species originating from the tropics and the subtropics are growing in the greenhouses over there.

Thanks to the warm and moist climate in the conservatories and the intensive maintenance, it’s really amazing what an immense great variety of exotic flowers from all over the world can be seen there, even in the cold winter season !
Flowers whose natural habitat is situated in the rainforest, the mountain forest, isolated islands, deserts, etc……. Places that most of us will never or seldom visit.
Some of the flowers are very rare, extremely colourful or specially shaped.
Others were introduced in Europe by men and became a cultivated species or ornamental houseplant.

I selected the –to my personal taste- most beautiful flowers that I saw there and made a series of them.

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Dutch name : Orchidee (venusschoentje)
German name : Orchidee (venusschuh)
Latin name : Orchidaceae paphiopedilum

Country of origin : China, India

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Did you know there exists about 22.000 different wild species of orchids worldwide ?
(to say nothing of the more then 100.000 hybrids and cultivars)
For that reason it is the largest family of flowering plants.