LUCKNOW: If in the fantastical world of bedtime tales, Fairy Godmother bestowed Cinderella with the prettiest glass slippers, Mother Nature matched their ethereal beauty on earth in the form of the vibrant purple Royal Lady’s Slipper Orchid — the most beautiful flower to behold.

 

Secretary of the Orchid Society of India and the winner of the lifetime achievement award on Wednesday, Prof SP Vij has devoted 42 years of his life to studying orchids. According to him, orchids are nature’s comical mimics. “Close your eyes and conjure up the image of any face and you will find the very same features personified in one of the over 1,00,000 different species of orchid blooms. And it’s not only faces that find reflection in this fascinating flower. Orchids also take the shape of birds, monkeys, dogs and scorpions.â€

 

Apart from the development and promotion of orchid culture, the society is also investigating this particular unique characteristic of orchids. Vij added that for prorogation, orchids are known to take the shape, size and colour of female insects for ‘pseudo-copulation’. Male insects are instantly attracted to the allure of the impostor orchid, thereby helping in the process of pollination.

 

Besides the floriculture prospects in terms of export of orchids, the flowers also have great medicinal value.

 

Orchid extracts have proved to be great aphrodisiacs and are also known to have rejuvenating and regenerative effects. In addition to this, a US study on orchid cultivators suggests that touch stimulus of orchids increases life expectancy by 10 years.

 

“There is not a single ailment for which, therapeutic and curative elements are not found in one or another orchid specie. In fact, the name orchid is derived from a Greek word based on it’s two tubers that have immense medicinal value. The ancient Greeks, it appears, were more impressed with the medicinal properties than the beauty of the colourful blooms. In fact, certain orchids have exhibited anti-HIV properties giving scientific leads for drug development,†he added.

 

Vij added that though it has not been scientifically proven, long ago, Europeans believed that if expectant mothers ate healthy tubers of orchids they would produce a male child and if they ate shrivelled tubers they would be bestowed with a baby girl.

 

For those who are in orchid culture for their magnificent beauty, there are orchids for all seasons and climates. Lucknow’s climate is ideally suited for phelenopsis and foxtails. “Our aim is to promote orchids to such an extent that not only do we start ‘saying it with flowers’ but we ‘say it with orchids’,†he enthused.