Then, two years ago, researchers in the Dominican Republic discovered a fossilized bee stuck in amber, still clutching a tiny ball of pollen, which they identified as having come from an orchid. Working backward on the modern orchid's sprawling family tree, they concluded that the oldest common ancestor probably dates to about 80 million years ago.
"That means orchids were present when dinosaurs walked the Earth," says Ron McHatton of the American Orchid Society, who has 2,500 orchids in his private collection.
It's all part of the allure of a plant that stoked a frenzy in England and the United States in the mid-1800s and early 1900s. Crazed Victorians dubbed the affliction "orchidelirium."
Even 15 or 20 years ago, orchids were considered "exotic," a rich man's curio known for dazzling flowers and arcane sexual habits.
"People ooh'd and ahh'd whenever they saw one," says Tom Purviance, co-owner of Parkside Orchid Nursery in Ottsville, which grows about 100,000 plants, mostly unusual tropical varieties, for hobbyists and collectors.
Today, more than $123 million worth of potted orchids are sold in this country annually, most between October and Mother's Day. Their popularity is second only to poinsettias and is way ahead of chrysanthemums, roses, and other favorites, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Orchids come in every shape and size - "minis" are the rage - and every color but black, including opportunistic orange for fall and red for winter. Some have a delectable vanilla or chocolate fragrance; others stink like rotten meat. And because of advances in tissue-culture propagation, super-cheap clones are everywhere.
