Orchids are really pretty cool.

I mean, how many other genera of flowering plants have bilaterally symmetric flowers (snapdragons and a few others, I think)? Who else grows in trees and rocks with little soil (bromeliads, among others)?

People couldn't figure out how to make orchid seeds grow at first. Turns out, orchids have a symbiotic relationship with a soil fungus, mycorrhizae, that provides the young plant with needed nitrogen and potassium, and in return, the plant gives the fungus carbon. Once they had the symbiont in the soil, the orchids grew just fine.

Needless to say, I had a good time at the American Orchid Society's Botanical Garden