Apr

The many faces of orchids

April 16 is National Orchid Day. In honor of these prized, beautiful, and increasingly threatened plants, Sophia Ancira takes us on a tour of the exhibition “The Future of Orchids” before it closes at the end of the month.

Hanging from trees, sitting in cachepots, popping up from soil— each of the nearly 400 orchids on view in Kogod Courtyard seems to peer back at you. Although appearances vary in size, pattern, and color, the orchids all have a bilaterally symmetrical floral structure. “If you draw a vertical line through the bloom’s center, each side of the flower will mirror the other, just like a human face,” explains Justin Kondrat, lead horticulturist of Smithsonian Gardens Living Orchid Collection. The diverse botanical “faces” in this year’s annual orchid exhibition prompt the exploration of two key ideas to the Smithsonian’s Life on a Sustainable Planet initiative—conservation and collaboration.

Yellow and pruple orchids in blue and green painted hanging containers

Orchids on display in “The Future of Orchids” exhibition on view through April 28. (Photo by Hannale Lahti)

“The Future of Orchids: Conservation and Collaboration,” weaves together threads of scientific research, digital advancement, and community science from across the institution. Melissa McCormick at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and Katia Silvera and David Roubik at Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute contributed to the conservation and environmental research that foregrounds the importance of cataloguing orchids—one of the most diverse plant species on the planet. Their work reveals how anthropogenic climate change threatens the resilience and richness of orchids and their environments. While preserving this species is possible through maintaining and studying living collections, as Gardens does, it can be done in other ways too.

on “Collaborations with Fungi.” Photo by Hannele Lahti.

Living orchids and brightly colored sculptural models of orchids

Garden Bed 6 with panel on “Collaborations with the Public.”
Photo by Hannele Lahti.

The Smithsonian Digitization Program Office offered a unique way for Gardens to catalogue the orchids—3D scans. “3D scanning and processing allows you to become very intimate with the form and texture of an object, and these orchids really have stunning personalities we got to know over the course of the project,” Katie Wolfe, a 3D Digitization Specialist, remarked. Using photogrammetry and high-definition laser line probing, explained in further detail in their blog post, the DPO team captured remarkable details, as granular as “the ‘whiskers’ of the Phalaenopsis or the little ‘hooks’ in the bloom of the Vanda.” Now, the orchids—and all the accompanying Smithsonian research—are accessible to people around the world in an interactive digital format.

The National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s Virginia Working Landscapes program also offered an opportunity for the public to learn about and take part in orchid research. Program director Amy Johnson describes the 2021 project when a “team of community scientists, staff and interns conducted 83 orchid surveys across 36 privately owned properties,” recording almost 3,000 individual orchids—seven species in forest surveys and two species in wetland and grassland habitats. The importance of public participation is critical not only for documenting native orchids but evaluating their relationships with local landscapes. “Orchids can serve as fascinating ambassadors for conservation, offering valuable lessons about biodiversity, ecosystem services, adaptation, and the importance of protecting our natural resources.”

Aretis in brigt green shirt stands behind several of her sculptural models of orchids

Artis Phaan Howng and some of her orchid models. Photo by Hannele Lahti

“The Future of Orchids” also brought familiar and new faces from outside the Institution together. The partnership with the U.S. Botanic Garden celebrated its 28th year, and collaborations with Guatemalan research collective Archilarum and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s Million Orchid Project brought wide-ranging perspectives to the exhibit. Synthesizing all of the internal and external collaborations, artist Phaan Howng was commissioned to create a series of otherworldly paintings, cachepots, tree wraps, and sculptures as a backdrop for the living orchids.

Live orchids in foreground; artists models in background

Photo by Hannele Lahti

Howng drew inspiration from the orchids on display, the herbarium collections at the National Museum of Natural History, and Smithsonian research in botany and ecology across multiple units. Her discoveries manifested in using DPO’s 3D scans of the orchids to create stunning visual artworks. Her 3D printed sculptures enlarge the digital scans, scaling up the delicate features Katie and the DPO team painstakingly captured. The “Model of Phaanlaenopsis” supersizes the common household orchid—a type that Gardens’ Kondrat recommends for its “months of long-lasting blooms that never disappoint. Howng’s sculptures serve as a model for people to transform Smithsonian digital scans into their own artistic works.

A red and black model of an orchid bloom

Model of Phaanlaenopsis by artist Phaan Howng.
Inspired by Phalaenopsis amabilis
White Moth Orchid
Orchidaceae
Malesia to Papuasia
FDM and resin 3D print, steel, wood, papier mache, silicone, acrylic paint
2023
Photo by Hannele Lahti

Howng describes her installation as an imagined future for orchids. Abstract, overgrown, and intensely colorful—it envisions the plants and the mycorrhizal fungi they rely on flourishing. This conceptualized thriving environment forces us to confront a difficult question—how realistic is a healthy planet in the coming years? As we contemplate our own future, on a personal and an institutional level, “The Future of Orchids” puts us face-to-face with a species as equally diverse, beautiful and vulnerable. We all play a valuable part in climate action, ecological sustainability, and protecting our shared planet.

Visit “The Future of Orchids: Conservation and Collaboration” at the Kogod Courtyard in the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery until April 28, 2024.

Visitors at The Future f Orchids exhibition

(Photo by Hannele Lahti)

Eager to learn more about orchids? An expert is in on Wednesdays from noon to 1 pm. Want to contribute to community science through orchids? Amy Johnson recommends documenting your findings in the “iNaturalist” app.

Sophia and Talia pose in Kogod COurtyard among orchids

Sophia Ancira (left) and Talia Smith of the Smithsonian’s Office of Public Affairs encourage you to see “The Future of Orchids” at the Kogod Courtyard of the Donald W. Reynolds Center before it closes April 28. (Photo by Hannele Lahti)