It is not. There are an estimated 30,000 orchid species in nature, making them the most extense floral plant family on Earth. There are specimens as big as a tree, and miniatures with flowers as small as a pin head. A family so vast and diverse understands more about exceptions than about rules. Orchids have three pistils and three stamens, but they differ from other flowers, which present these elements as separate units, in that orchids have them fusioned into one structure called column or gynostemium , located in the center of the labelum , that usually showy and colored lip we admire in the flower.
Orchids are one of the most developed of all monocotyledons .
They exhibit notable specializations for pollination, as well as advanced water storage systems that contribute to their success in the fight for survival. It is one of those systems to store water, tuberoids often found in terrestrial orchid species, that gave name to the genus Orchis. Another water storage system, used by epiphytic orchids, which live on trees, is the one called pseudobulbs, those protuberances found in the base of the leaves. Classification Classification work for the Orchidaceae family is not yet finished, of course. The Dressler system, published in 1981, lists six subfamilies, more than 725 genera and close to 25,000 species.