Yesterday, Ellie & I visited the 28th Orchid Festival in Kew Gardens. The only one we had previously visited was in 2017. Turns out, that when Kew Gardens aren’t busy celebrating the demise of women’s and gay rights with shows like “Queer Nature” (specifically linked to the obnoxious Queer Theory), they can still put on a good show.
THIS YEAR’S THEME: MADAGASCAR
As in previous years, the festival is ‘themed on’ and ‘inspired by’ one country. This year it’s the world’s fourth largest island, Madagascar, with its unique flora and fauna. The country is home to some of the world’s rarest plant species. Over 14,000 of its plants are found nowhere else in the world.
Moreover, the nation’s lush rainforests and tropical dry forests also happen to be home to about 750 endemic orchid species (plus another 150 non-endemic ones). While only a tiny fraction of the tracheophytes shown are species belonging to this paradise in the Indian Ocean, the Festival exhibits some of the most impressive Madagascan varieties.
KEW GARDENS’ LONG-STANDING PARTNERSHIP WITH MADAGASCAR
Since 1986, for almost 40 years now, Kew has been running research projects in Madagascar. As a matter of fact, Kew’s ‘Madagascar Conservation Centre’ is their only overseas office. 40 staff from Kew are based on the island, working with local partners to catalogue & protect the country’s flora.
WHEN, WHERE, AND: HOW TO BOOK YOUR TICKET
The Festival will be open every day until Sunday, 3 March, at the Princess of Wales Conservatory, inside Kew Gardens, about 15 minutes’ walk from the main entrance. A ticket to the Gardens includes entry to Orchids 2024. It is vital, though, that when you buy your tickets through the Gardens’ official website, you also book a time slot for the orchid show.
Online tickets are £20 to £22, with serious discounts available for families, children, students, senior citizens, persons on benefits, etc.
The Orchids After Hours evenings (more information further below) cost £17 per person on top of the regular admission.
WHAT’S ON OFFER?
Especially on cold, dark, rainy winter days, it is good for the soul to enter the 24C warm, brightly lit, reasonably dry conservatory. From a plaque on the wall we learn that almost all the orchids here have been cultivated in the Netherlands, before they made their way to Old Blighty.
MADAGASCAN ANIMAL SCULPTURES
One of the many highlights of the Festival is in the first big hall. It contains many of the best sculptures of Madagascan wildlife that are spread throughout the rooms. There are giant tortoises, ring-tailed lemurs, moths, and chameleons, of which no country has more species than this island. About half of all known species.
All were made from natural and recycled materials and look kind of cute. Especially kids will love them.
DIFFERENT CLIMATE ZONES, PONDS, AND A BOTANISTS’ CAMP
The sections contain ponds, streams, little fountains, and vary between arid and wet tropical. Each hall focuses on different groups of orchids. As a special treat, the last room even features a mock-up of a botanists’ camp.
MALAGASY MUSIC AND A BACKGROUND SOUNDSCAPE
Throughout the conservatory, visitors can listen to some uplifting Malagasy music and a soundscape which celebrates the ambient sounds of Madagascar. Recorded by Kew scientists on location. You will also be able to purchase food which celebrates the flavours of authentic Malagasy recipes.
A SHORT FILM
A newly commissioned film showcasing the sheer beauty of Madagascar is being shown in one of the rooms.
THE ‘AFTER HOURS’ EVENT SERIES
On most Fridays and Saturdays, ‘After Hours’ sessions take place from 6 to 10pm, with last admissions at 9pm.
LIVE MUSIC, DANCE, TALKS, COOKING DEMONSTRATIONS & SOME POETRY
There will be live music from an exuberant Malagasy band, the Boriza Brothers, dance and spoken word performances, as well as talks and cooking demonstrations. Highlights include live performances by singer-songwriter Rasoanaivo Hanitrarivo and poet Vaonarivo Brown.
COCONUT CHICKEN, SLOW-BRAISED GINGER BEEF
Lilia’s Kitchen offers traditional Malagasy dishes like coconut chicken, and a slow-braised ginger beef, as well as cocktails. Just to mention it: there didn’t seem to be many takers for the food, and it sure didn’t look that great. All performances and talks are included in the ticket price. The evenings are only open to adults (18+).
ORCHIDS HAVE A PROUD HISTORY AS A PLANT FAMILY
Orchids are one of the oldest flowering plants. The oldest fossils are between 45 and 55 million years old. The majority of scientists believe them to have been around for much longer, though. Many scholars believe that they might be as old as 100 million years.
And even in the early days, long before us humans arrived, 2 million years ago, orchids were already among the most diverse families of plants, making up 10% of the total land plant species on the planet.
EVEN TODAY, ORCHIDS ARE AN IMPRESSIVE FAMILY OF PLANTS
To this day, right behind the daisy family (32,000 species), the orchid family is the next biggest family of land plant species with about 28,000 recognised species. So every 17th species of land plant is an orchid (6%). The number of orchid species nearly equals the number of bony fish. It is more than twice the number of bird species, and about four times the number of mammal species. Horticulturists have produced more than 190,000 orchid hybrids and cultivars.
MORE THAN 50 NATIVE UK ORCHID SPECIES
The UK boasts over 50 native orchid species. Who would have guessed? Many of them are equally stunning as the exotics, even though the majority look very different.
ORCHIDELIRIUM & RAIDS IN RAINFORESTS
The Victorians went completely bonkers about orchids. Anyone who could afford it, either took a few months off to raid some tropical rainforest in a remote corner of the globe for the flowers. Or, at the bare minimum, they hired someone to do it for them. It was in those days that the term ‘orchidelirium’ was minted. Pathological obsession with orchids.
THE UK’S RAREST WILD ORCHIDS HAVE THEIR OWN CCTV
As a result of the Victorians’ craze, the lady’s slipper orchid, once widespread throughout northern England, was thought to have been driven into extinction by 1917. Luckily, in 1930, a single colony was discovered in a remote corner of the Yorkshire Dales. A handful of flower lovers kept the discovery a secret. From the 1970s onwards, surveillance cameras and fences were installed.
SO HOW RARE ARE ORCHIDS?
You’ll find plenty of orchids being sold in our supermarkets and flower shops without any restrictions. However, in terms of the total number of orchid species, the vast majority of them are listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
This means that international trade is tightly regulated by the CITES permit system. A smaller number of orchids are listed in Appendix I, meaning most commercial trade is entirely prohibited.
GOOD FOR COOKING
Our friends from Turkey use the tubers of some non-endangered orchids to flavour ice cream and hot drinks. On Reunion Island some distillers use dried orchid leaves to flavour their rum. The Australian Aboriginals used to feed on some orchid tubers in ancient times.
Of course, we all know the most prominent example of orchids used in cooking. Vanilla is made from the dried seed pods of one orchid genus, helpfully called Vanilla. They happen to be one of my favourite ingredients in sweet dishes and pastry. I also occasionally add vanilla to savory dishes like pork medallions with mushroom cream pasta.
VALUED FOR MEDICINAL PURPOSES
Perhaps most surprisingly, the herbs are also believed to have healing powers. In traditional Chinese medicine, the orchid was used to cure coughs and lung illnesses. On the other side of the Pacific, the Aztecs drank a mixture of vanilla, orchid flowers and chocolate, to give them strength. Naturally, the ancient Greeks weren’t going to be left behind: they believed certain species to be aphrodisiacs.
ORCHIDS ARE NOT JUST BEAUTIFUL & USEFUL, THEY ARE ALSO COSMOPOLITAN
Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on earth. Much of the evolutionary success of orchids is due to this versatility. The vascular plants only kept their roots away from one continent: Antarctica.
BALLSY BEAUTS OR IS IT ALL BOLLOCKS?
In terms of countries, there are very few who don’t have any endemic species, such as a couple of desert countries and a handful of extremely isolated island nations. Apart from that, you’ll find those ballsy beauts wherever you go: arctic tundra, swamps, mountaintops, and desert-like environments.
Talking ballsy, the ancient Middle English term for them is actually bollockwort. “Bollocks”, even back then already, meaning testicles, and “wort” meaning plant. As you might have guessed, the term referenced the shape of the twin tubers in many orchids, not their fearless geographic expansion. The word “orchid” has the same origin and is based on the Greek word for balls.
SOME ORCHIDS CAN GROW ENTIRELY UNDERGROUND
Orchids can grow on trees, on rocks or even, uniquely among plants, entirely underground. How some of the underground orchids are pollinated, remains mysterious, apart from one species. It was discovered that it is the only known plant species pollinated by termites.
ORCHIDS ARE MYSTERIOUS & SYMBOLIC
For millennia, a comprehensive symbolism has been attached to those wondrous plants that combine strange beauty, surreal colours, & strong scents with bizarre biology.
Yellow orchids mean happiness, joy, and strength. They are often given to wish someone good luck or to congratulate someone. They also convey friendship, warmth, and well-wishes. Pink orchids are said to symbolise grace, elegance, and femininity.
THEY STAND FOR GOOD LUCK, LOVE, BRAVERY, RESPECT, AND WEALTH
Orange orchids represent excitement, enthusiasm, determination, appreciation, and pride. Green ones are often seen as symbols of good luck, health, harmony, and good fortune. Blue orchids are rather rare, hence often seen as symbols of uniqueness.
Unsurprisingly, red ones symbolise love. They stand for affection and were once used as a main ingredient in love potions. Red orchids can also be a sign of bravery and courage.
Purple orchids represent admiration, dignity, respect, wealth, and class. Over the centuries, they became a common symbol of royalty.
ORCHIDS HAVE THE SMALLEST SEEDS OF ANY PLANT
Different from the vast majority of seeds, orchid seeds contain no food store. This means the seeds are the size of dust. They rely on fungi to germinate. One orchid seedpod can contain up to 3 million seeds.
HOW OLD DO THE PLANTS GET?
Certain species can live up to 100 years and more in the wild. Most potted orchids will last about 10 to 15 years, if well taken care of.
WHAT’S THE BIGGEST AND THE SMALLEST VARIETY?
Grammatophyllum speciosum, also called Queen of Orchids, or Tiger Orchid, can weigh in as heavy as two tonnes, with flower stalks up to two metres, bearing up to 7,000 flowers at a time.
In 2015, a minuscule orchid flower, Campylocentrum insulare, was found in Brazil. Its blooms measure 0.5mm in diameter and the plant was initially mistaken for a fungus until it was examined under a microscope.
DARWIN’S ORCHID AND THE MOTH PREDICTED BY HIM
While, as mentioned, the vast majority of the 5,000 flowers on display are not from Madagascar, but from around the world, one of the most popular specimens is from the island: Darwin’s Orchid. It holds a world record for the length of its nectary, the nectar-secreting glandular organ in a flower, which reaches more than a foot (30cm) in length.
THAT’S ONE SERIOUSLY LONG TONGUE
In the 1860s Darwin had hypothesised that such a flower could only be pollinated by a creature with a similarly long tongue that would have had to have evolved alongside the flower. It would have to be able to reach the nectar at the bottom. Four decades later the theory was finally proven. The Long-Tongued Hawk Moth was discovered. Its scientific name translates into ‘predicted moth’ in honour of Darwin.
ENJOY THE REST OF THE GARDENS
Your ticket covers admission to all of Kew Gardens. This green oasis became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003 and celebrated its 260th anniversary in 2019. Ellie & I spent another three hours just strolling around the gigantic site and enjoying all the sights of other magnificent plants. You could easily make a whole day of it.
CONCLUSION
We absolutely loved this year’s Orchid Festival at Kew Gardens. The beauty of all the flowers is almost overwhelming. Best not to wait until the last moment to book your tickets, as many time slots for Orchids 2024 have already sold out.
The display will be taken down after the last open day, Sunday 3 March. All the orchids will be sold to volunteers and staff.
If this show ends up having whetted your appetite for more of those perennial herbs, then a visit to the Orchid House at RHS Garden Wisley near Guildford might be something to consider. It won’t be as spectacular as Kew’s Orchid Festival, but I hear it’s definitely worth checking out. We already put it on our list.
Looking for more blog posts about nature? Feel welcome to eyeball my posts about caving in the Yorkshire Dales and Devon, packrafting in Wales, stand-up paddleboarding the Thames source to London, or skiing in Bad Hofgastein.
