ORCHIDS: First, The Exotic

Last week was the annual show of the Amherst Orchid Society (held here in Northampton, but no matter). Anyone owning a camera feels impelled to go to an orchid show, I think, and I’m no exception; although I’m always uncertain whether I think orchids are more a) exotic  b) beautiful or c) weird. The Amherst show was a surfeit of all three. I have so many photos I want to share with you that I’m dividing this post in three parts, beginning today with the exotic:

Here is one exhibit table, belonging to the Connecticut Orchid Society, bursting with exotic specimens and bristling with red, yellow and blue prize ribbons:

Going to a high school prom always used to mean orchids, at least in my day (perhaps it still does) and here is a cattleya, the traditional purple corsage orchid. To us then it was enormously exotic, but in this crowd at the Orchid Show, it was rather a plain Jane:

Here’s a spray of variegated pink phalaenopsis, known as “moth orchids,” but I always think of them as butterfly orchids. I don’t think that moths look quite like this!

And here’s a close-up of this exotic creature:

And finally, a spray of white orchids (variety unknown) that somehow look predatory to me. Tigers and leopards and panthers are all exotic and exquisite, but they do have a habit of pouncing and eating, and these orchids look equally capable of doing so, at least I think so!

Next post to come: The Beautiful —