Visit the Cellar!

The Cellar Image of the Day is just a section of a larger web community: bright folks talking about everything. The Cellar is the original coffeeshop with no coffee and no shop. Founded in 1990, The Cellar is one of the oldest communities on the net. Join us at the table if you like!

 
What's IotD?

The interesting, amazing, or mind-boggling images of our days.

IotD Stuff

ARCHIVES - over 13 years of IotD!
About IotD
RSS2
XML

Permalink Latest Image

October 22, 2020: A knot of knots is up at our new address

Recent Images

September 28th, 2020: Flyboarding
August 31st, 2020: Arriving Home / Happy Monkey Bait
August 27th, 2020: Dragon Eye Pond
August 25th, 2020: Sharkbait
July 29th, 2020: Gateway to The Underworld
July 27th, 2020: Perseverance
July 23rd, 2020: Closer to the Sun

The CELLAR Tip Mug
Some folks who have noticed IotD

Neatorama
Worth1000
Mental Floss
Boing Boing
Switched
W3streams
GruntDoc's Blog
No Quarters
Making Light
darrenbarefoot.com
GromBlog
b3ta
Church of the Whale Penis
UniqueDaily.com
Sailor Coruscant
Projectionist

Link to us and we will try to find you after many months!

Common image haunts

Astro Pic of the Day
Earth Sci Pic of the Day
We Make Money Not Art
Spluch
ochevidec.net
Strange New Products
Geisha Asobi Blog
Cute animals blog (in Russian)
20minutos.es
Yahoo Most Emailed

Please avoid copyrighted images (or get permission) when posting!

Advertising

The best real estate agents in Montgomery County

   xoxoxoBruce  Tuesday Apr 11 12:21 AM

Apr 11th, 2017: Orchidaceae

Quote:
The Orchidaceae are a diverse and widespread family of flowering plants, with blooms that are often colorful and often
fragrant, commonly known as the orchid family.


Quote:
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.


Quote:
Regardless, the number of orchid species nearly equals the number of bony fishes and is more than twice the number of bird species, and about four times the number of mammal species. The family also 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).


Quote:
Orchids are easily distinguished from other plants, as they share some very evident, shared derived characteristics, or "apomorphies". 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.


What Really Happened.

Henry, I’m tired of trekking through these swamps and jungles, classifying plants.
I say, Nigel, look at this strange flower.
An Orchid… I miss my wife.
Nigel what about this one?
A damn Orchid… I want to go home.
Look at this strange flower, Nigel.
It's a fucking Orchid… Pack up, we’re leaving.


link


Clodfobble  Tuesday Apr 11 12:51 AM

I think they're aliens, practicing their Earth aesthetics before they choose their final form.



Snakeadelic  Tuesday Apr 11 09:06 AM

quoting: "distributed in about 763 genera"

One of those genera, seriously, is Dracula. 118 species' worth, in fact, and you've got a D. simia in the lineup. That'd be the monkey orchid. The genus is, in fact, named for the literary character despite being exclusively New World (North, Central, & South America) plant. Many are dark red to black and have assorted fang-like projections on the blooms.

That's most of my orchid knowledge condensed right there. Guess I like my life sciences a little friskier than the floral side.



footfootfoot  Tuesday Apr 11 10:07 AM

The NYBG has an annual orchid show, I've been several times and sat through a few fascinating talks about orchids. One of the things the docent said about orchids is that they are spread out world wide despite requiring exactingly specific conditions in which to germinate. As such, each orchid produces about a hijillion seeds (think about vanilla bean pods and all those tiny flecks. Those are seeds)

The docent said something like, if 1% of orchid seeds germinated the earth would be buried in orchids 100 feet deep. Something crazy like that. My depth may be off, but whatever it was, I remember it was way above our heads.



xoxoxoBruce  Tuesday Apr 11 10:11 AM

You're probably not off. With 4 times the number of mammal species, and a shitload of each species, making gadzillion seeds.



BigV  Tuesday Apr 11 10:32 AM

"OMG! How many is a Brazilian?"



Diaphone Jim  Tuesday Apr 11 02:53 PM

Those are neat. Gives pareidolia a good name.

I find the use of the "o" word in surgery disturbing.



xoxoxoBruce  Tuesday Apr 11 02:57 PM

Do you mean The Orchid House Surgery?



Flint  Tuesday Apr 11 04:04 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Clodfobble View Post
I think they're aliens, practicing their Earth aesthetics before they choose their final form.



BigV  Tuesday Apr 11 10:41 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Diaphone Jim View Post
Those are neat. Gives pareidolia a good name.

I find the use of the "o" word in surgery disturbing.
Avoid Dead Ringers.

spoiler alert at the link.


footfootfoot  Thursday Apr 13 11:00 AM

Dead Ringers is a great film. If you go for Horror as metaphor - Cronenberg's specialty.

I just remembered an orchid that resembles a certain type of bee hovering over a stalk of grass. The male bee sees the orchid and thinks it is a receptive female bee. The male then fucks the orchid and gets pollen all over his junk, he then goes on an orchid-fucking rampage, pollinating as he does.

That might be the only example I would recognize as evidence of there being a god who created everything. Or at least those bees and orchids.



Your reply here?

The Cellar Image of the Day is just a section of a larger web community: a bunch of interesting folks talking about everything. Add your two cents to IotD by joining the Cellar.