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Welcome to a glossary of most of the common, and some not-so-common, orchid terms. A glossary is an alphabetical list of concepts, terms and words. The meaning of these terms is often dependent upon the given field of knowledge or science which in this case is the Orchidaceae Family. It is far from fully comprehensive, but it does embrace a fairly wide range of words used by orchid growers, orchid botanists and various orchid authors.
To find the meaning of the term you are interested in, you can click on the appropriate button above or type the term in the “Search” bar. Below are some additional topics that may help you with this Glossary.
Typefaces
Boldface - terms used by orchidists, either in a botanical sense, such as acaulescent, or in a horticultural sense, such as community pot.
CAPITALS and SMALL CAPITALS- names of persons prominent in the history of orchids, whether they be botanists, collectors, hybridizers or growers. Within parentheses following the name is the year of birth and the year of death, where known.
Ordinary Roman type - trade names or products referred to in orchid literature. Their inclusion in this glossary is not to be taken as an endorsement nor as instruction on their use.
Italics - botanical names of orchids and are for the most part derived from Latin or Greek. If the italicized word has a capital initial, it is the name of an orchid genus. Italicized words not beginning with a capital initial are the species names, more correctly termed "specific epithets."
