Wild orchids of peninsular Malaysia

• Main Author: P.T. Ong (Author)
• Other Authors: P.O'bryne, W.S.Y. Yong, L.G. Saw
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Selangor. Malaysia MPH Group Publishing 2011
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.

 Orchids are often rare and beautiful but in a sense they are quite commonplace, actually among the most familiar faces of life on earth. A substantial 10 per cent of all the world's flowering plants are orchids. The orchid family, Orchidaceae, is one of the world's largest plant families, and richly diverse, covering more than 22,500 species (named individual plants) [2⁹]. Orchids are also among the most adaptable of plants, found all over the world except for Antarctica. But their true home is the humid tropics, and it's there that they are most abundant. SOUTHEAST ASIA THE ORCHID HUB At the heart of those humid tropics, Southeast Asia is one of the richest orchid regions of the world, with perhaps more than 10,000 species [31]. Within this region, Peninsular Malaysia is home to 905 species of orchids in 143 genera (plural of genus, a group of similar plant species within a plant family). This makes orchids by far the largest plant family on the Peninsula, representing about 15 per cent of all flowering plant species found there [23]. The Peninsular Malaysian species count is expected to increase to about 1,000 species or more as new species emerge thanks to exploration and research. However, new research could equally reduce the number of species if it leads to revised classification, which often requires the renaming of species and even their 'merger' with some other species names.