Page 12 - Tropical glasshouses
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14 Mothorchid Phalaenopsis amabilis
You might be thinking ‘That’s nothing special’; you can buy a moth orchid for next to nothing in almost any supermarket or garden centre.
Many cultivated moth orchids have this species as an ‘ancestor’, and breeding has changed this orchid so much that it owers for an incredibly long time. The wild species here in the Hortus owers for a much shorter period than the cultivars (the plants selected for the trade). It originates
from Indonesia, where it is valued as one of the ‘national owers’. When the moth orchids are not in ower they are kept in one of the research glasshouses (page 18/19); when they ower they are put on display in a prominent position.
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