A short review on the history of orchid taxonomy

Abstract

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).