The exotic beauty, shape complexity and colour diversity of orchid flowers is most astonishing in the plant kingdom. In and around Tenga Valley, wherein I worked for over three years in the 1980s, all the three kinds of orchid could be seen - aerial, territorial and lithophytes. A group of teachers, including me, used to go to the forests around Kameng River for orchid collection on Sundays.
They are mainly found attached to the mossy bark of trees, rocks, soil or the surface of other plants. Their thick, white corky roots are specially adapted to absorb moisture and dissolved nutrients from other surfaces and air.
The orchid plants of Tenga Valley have only a few leaves - leathery thick and limp. They bloom once a year for six to ten weeks. They have long lasting asymmetrically shaped flowers, even when plucked, they remain in shape for 3-4 weeks.
To learn more about orchids, I even paid visit to Tipi Orchid Research Centre near Bhalukpong which has a good number of species of orchids spread in a few hectares of land as an orchidarium with tissue culture lab, museum, herbarium and a garden with lush green lawns.
It also has an orchid glass house, which has a display gallery, a pond with fountain and a large number species of orchids for cultivation, conservation and research.
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