Orchids get special home in Bogor

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

A worker at the orchid pavilion at the Bogor Botanical Gardens attaches several epiphytical orchids to the trunk of a devil tree, locally known as a Lame (Alstonia scholaris).

The garden's flora conservation unit has set up an orchidarium, where researchers and visitors can observe the life cycle of the wild flower.

Unit head Sudjati Budi Susetyo said the pavilion would be home to a wide variety of orchids, including the huge Gramatophylum spesiusum, and house both terrestrial orchids that grew on soil and epiphytic types that grew on trees.

Mango, meranti and kemang trees (Mangifera caesia) are all planted in the center and are common homes for the flowers.

"The orchidarium enables the plants to live in their natural habitat; no longer in a green house," Sudjati said.

There are at least 25,000 species of orchids in the world, of which one quarter of them can be found in Indonesia.

Out of the 700 genera of orchids found in the country, 400 are in the parks' collection.