Comet orchid

Description

Angraecum eburneum is a species of orchid. Their common name the "comet orchid". They generally grow up to 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in height and grows 10 to 15 flowers per plant. They are native to Madagascar, Comoros, Seychelles, Réunion, Mauritius, Kenya, and Tanzania. The white and green flower is 7.5 centimetres (3.0 in) in size and is said to give off a pleasant smell. Flowering begins in early winter and takes several months. Claire Waight Keller included the plant to represent Seychelles in Meghan Markle's wedding veil, which included the distinctive flora of each Commonwealth country. The genus Angraecum, abbreviated as Angcm in horticultural trade, common name Angrek (Indonesian and Malay) or comet orchid, contains about 220 species. They are quite varied vegetatively and florally and are adapted to dry tropical woodland habitat and have quite fleshy leaves as a consequence. Most are epiphytes, but a few are lithophytes. The long-lasting flowers are racemose and grow from the leaf axils. They are mostly white, but a few are yellow, green or ochre. They all have a long spur at the back of the labellum (lip). In the case of Angraecum sesquipedale, a species from Madagascar, on observing the 30 centimetres (12 in) spur in the lip, Charles Darwin made the hypothesis that, since the nectar was at the bottom of the spur, a pollinator must exist with a tongue at least that long. Otherwise the orchid could never be pollinated. At the time, he was not believed. However, in 1903, the predicted pollinator was discovered, a hawk moth then named Xanthopan morganii praedicta ("praedicta" meaning "the predicted one"). It has an appropriately long proboscis. The specific name sesquipedale means "one foot and a half", referring to the length of the spur. This is an example of mutual dependence of an orchid and a specific pollinator. Tropical Africa and Madagascar contain the majority of the genus with one outlier found on Sri Lanka, and three species once thought to belong to the genus in Japan and the Philippines. But these orchids can also be found on the Comoros, the Seychelles, and the Mascarenes. They occur between sea level and 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) in humid regions.