Appearance, environment, life style- all vary enormously among the more then 25,000 species that make up the orchid population. This book explores the the fascinating world of the orchid family, focusing on the physical characteristics and the behavior patterns of 90 orchids.

Hilda Simon's exquisitely detailed, full-color illustrations depict these orchids in the natural habitats and reveal the intimate details of their amazingly intricate modes of reproduction.

The ingenious tricks by which orchids entice the various insects and birds that are pollinators would do create to a eighteenth-century French courtesan. Some Orchids wear red to attract the butterflies and hummingbirds that can perceive and are attracted to the color. Other species lure male bees by emitting the sexual odor of the female bee. Others provide the visitor with a delicious repast of protein and sugar or comfortable lodging for the night.

There are orchids that "imitate" insects (and insects that imitate orchids), transparent orchids, and orchids that live underwater. There are leafless orchids, braided orchids, and orchids with a "ghost" faces. In her selection of a number of representative members of major orchid groups, and the careful choice of especially notable species from small and little-known genera, Hilda Simon provides an enthralling glimpse at the incomparable beauty and manifold wonders of orchid life.