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The family Orchidaceae is one of the largest flowering plant families in the world and contains over 20,000 naturally occurring orchid species and approximately 10,000 man-made hybrids (Woolcock and Woolcock 1984; Dockrill 1992; Cameron et al. 1999; Bateman et al. 2003; Cafasso et al. 2005;). It is generally accepted that orchids have an ancient origin due to their close association with the Liliaceae, Iridaceae and Amarillidaceae families, of the subclass Monocotyledonae (Dressler and Dodson 1960; Schmid 1977; Dockrill 1992). Orchids are thought to have originated in Malaysia in the Cretaceous period and dispersed throughout the Tertiary period, becoming epiphytic in the Plio-pleistocene (Schmid 1977; Dressler 1981; Janssen and Bremer 2004). However, evidence of these events is lacking, primarily due to a poor fossil record (Schmid 1977). |
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