Orchidomania: A history of our fascination with orchids

These images from a brand-new detailed book chart the long human love affair with orchids, the amazing household of blooming plants that continue to mesmerize us today

By Gege Li

THIS flamboyant choice of images commemorates among nature’s most lovely and inspiring flowers– the orchid. They are drawn from the upcoming book Orchid Muse: A history of fixation in fifteen flowers by ecological historian Erica Hannickel, which is out in December.

Orchids have actually left their stamp on culture and art throughout human history, with terms consisting of “orchidomania” and “orchidelirium” in usage given that the 19 th century, showing a more current fixation with the plants.

The leading image is an illustration of a butterfly orchid ( Psychopsis papilio) drawn from the 1887 book The Orchid Album The genus was relabelled from Oncidium by French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, who recorded numerous North American orchids. Mind, composes Hannickel, implies character or soul in Greek, while papilio suggests butterfly in Latin. The image above programs Psychopsis Mendenhall, a hybrid with 75 percent P. papilio parentage.

An image from the American Orchid Society Bulletin from 1946 (above) exposes the stylish status bestowed on orchids in the United States after the war.

And Matthew Darly’s 1777 illustration, The Flower Garden(imagined above), is a funny nod to the appeal of botany in the late 18 th century, which saw ladies embellish their hair with flowers and caterpillars, to name a few decorations.

Pictured above, the 2014 oil painting, Orchid Cabinet by Madeline von Foerster, portrays 8 threatened orchid types holding on to Mother Nature, symbolising the in some cases harmful human connection with wildlife.