Collectible Plant: Shenzhen Nongke Orchid

Orchidaceae, commonly called the orchid family, is a diverse and widespread family of flowering plants, with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.

Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering plants. The Orchidaceae have about 28,000 currently accepted species, distributed in about 763 genera. The determination of which family is larger is still under debate, because verified data on the members of such enormous families are continually in flux. Regardless, the number of orchid species is nearly equal to the number of bony fishes, more than twice the number of bird species, and about four times the number of mammal species.

The family encompasses about 6–11% of all seed plants. The largest genera are Bulbophyllum (2,000 species), Epidendrum (1,500 species), Dendrobium (1,400 species) and Pleurothallis (1,000 species). It also includes Vanilla (the genus of the vanilla plant), the type genus Orchis, and many commonly cultivated plants such as Phalaenopsis and Cattleya. Moreover, since the introduction of tropical species into cultivation in the 19th century, horticulturists have produced more than 100,000 hybrids and cultivars.

Orchids are easily distinguished from other plants, as they share some very evident derived characteristics or synapomorphies. Among these are: bilateral symmetry of the flower (zygomorphism), many resupinate flowers, a nearly always highly modified petal (labellum), fused stamens and carpels, and extremely small seeds.

The most expensive plant ever sold was the Shenzhen Nongke Orchid sold for $224,000 in 2005. Created in a university lab by scientists it took 8 years to create.

When this orchid was finally put up for auction in 2005, an anonymous bidder paid over $224,000 to add it to their collection. We think they stayed anonymous out of embarrassment or maybe a little surprising humbleness. After all, who wants to be known as the person who spent $224,000 on a flower? For the average person, it is impossible to imagine spending that kind of money on anything.

In fact, it is worth fully understanding just how much money this person spent on a small flower to give perspective to how wild it was as a purchase.

Cheerio!