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Contriving Plants
by Peggy High '55
 There are more than 60,000 species of them, growing on every continent except Antarctica. All share the same flower structure but differ in their scents, from those of heavenly sweetness to odors of “dead elephants” to the luscious aromas of chocolate and vanilla. Although many of them grow on trees, one species, in Australia, grows completely underground. What are these amazing plants? Orchids!
On an afternoon in May, Mr. Scot J. Paltrow, father of a Chapin Kindergartner, came to talk to Class 4 about his passion for these beautiful plants. Rapt listeners, the students eagerly absorbed a fascinating array of facts from Mr. Paltrow’s illustrated lecture. They learned that many orchids are found in rain forests, growing on the limbs of trees, where they can receive the filtered light they require as well as food and moisture. Orchid flowers are made to resemble the insects that will pollinate them and those insects will determine the plant’s scent. Flowers fertilized by the Borneo fly, for example, are the “stinkers,” smelling of the rotting flesh on which the flies feed, and some species of orchids are endangered because the insects that pollinate them no longer exist.
Although orchids, in common with all plants, cannot move, they have developed ingenious ways, or what Charles Darwin called “contrivances.” to ensure their survival. To get their pollen from one flower to another they enlist the aid not only of insects but also of birds and even bats. Orchid pollen, as opposed to the powdery substance produced by other flowers, is deposited as a sticky little packet on just the right part of the insect or bird, which then transports it to the next flower for pollination and the production of many tiny seeds. These seeds, like “specks of dust,” containing no nutriments of their own, are fertilized by certain species of fungi, which grow into the seeds, providing sugar for them.
Sadly, Mr. Paltrow, for all his love and knowledge of orchids, can no longer keep some for himself, as he has moved to a new location with insufficient light for his plants. His loss, however, is Chapin’s gain, as he has generously donated many of his orchids to the school. Now students, faculty and staff can enter the greenhouse and observe several pots of the fragile white Phalaenopis (meaning “looking like a moth”) and other varieties, cared for by members of the school’s science department. Mr. Paltrow, whose love of orchids was inspired, in part, by the “good teachers” of his childhood, is pleased with this arrangement and happy to entrust his beloved plants to Chapin’s hospitable environment. |
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