Charles Darwin used orchids to help prove his theories of natural selection and evolution. Scientists today follow in Darwin’s footsteps and use orchids to learn more about how plants have evolved and adapted to live in almost every type of environment around the world.
In Orchids through Darwin’s Eyes, we explore the alluring world of orchids from the perspective of Darwin and the naturalists, horticulturists, and scientists he influenced. Along with thousands of colorful, fragrant, live orchids, a highlight of this exhibition is the earliest orchid fossil, embedded in amber with an extinct bee species.
Courtesy Wellcome Library, London
Darwin and Orchids
Charles Darwin’s careful observations of animals, plants, and geological formations inspired his speculations about how species adapt to their environments. When he published On the Origin of Species in 1859, some critics said he did not support his theory of natural selection with enough evidence.
“In my examination of Orchids, hardly any fact has so much struck me as the endless diversity of structure...for gaining the very same end, namely, the fertilisation of one flower by the pollen of another.”
—Charles Darwin, On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, 1862
Darwin agreed that further research was needed, and chose to study the elaborate adaptations found in orchid flowers. In his 1862 book, On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, Darwin carefully described his observations of orchid pollination and how orchid flowers had evolved to attract certain pollinating insects. He concluded that different orchid species had evolved strategies to ensure cross-pollination, which greatly benefits the species by producing greater numbers of viable seeds and stronger seedlings.
Modern Research
Illustration by Kim Moeller
Darwin’s theories and research have become the foundation of modern biological science. And research on orchid evolution continues still. Orchids through Darwin’s Eyes introduces visitors to some of the current research on orchid evolution from around the world.
“It makes no common sense for male Catasetum flowers to mistreat their pollinators, but it makes perfect evolutionary sense….it is advantageous for the male flower to somehow deter other male flowers from being visited by the same bee.”
—Dr. Daniel Fulop, Harvard University
and bee embedded in amber.
Courtesy of Santiago Ramírez
“…the orchid family was fairly young at the time of the extinction of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago and began to flourish shortly thereafter.”
—Dr. Santiago Ramírez, University of California, Berkeley
Creating the Orchids Exhibition
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