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Your mind will be blown by this Wikipedia article. It’s only 2 pages long, but it’s packed with wild info!
For 200 years, orchids have been one of the most obsessed-over plants in the world!
I’d love to hear your thoughts and your stories about orchids! 🀣 
“Orchid hunting”, that’s a new one on me! Thanks for the info.
I’m completely taken by the orchid fever, all my three travels this year were to find rare orchids.
And about the fear of orchids getting dug out, I don’t have that at all and almost never obscure locations. At least in Austria, with the exception of cypripedium, it’s not what endangers orchids. Half of the local species are about to go extinct, with only a few populations left, but the threats are farming, forestry, over-grazing, roads and development. Killing thousands and thousands of orchids and destroying the only habitats left where they could grow. If someone digs out a few that’s not even a drop compared to that, and in fact maybe the dug out ones will be the only ones which survive when a house is built where the others would have remained.
As a visitor Centre based ranger, I often try and give visitors something interesting to look for in the current season, that they might not find without slowing down and looking harder.
This month its Corybas Spider orchids. We are at the start of the season, and over the next couple months several species will do thier dash. They are small and obscure often, and from above often are just green on green.
But get on thier level, and they can be quite pretty
That example is Dancing Spider Orchid Corybas acuminatus
Corybas is pretty common and widespread, so its easy to point out with much risk. On the otherside certain orchids, like tree orchids I would be less likely to point out.
A big part of what I aim to do, is take people visiting our park who have a general interest in nature, and start them on the journey of looking closer. Orchids are a group which its pretty easy to stoke excitement about.
For a lot of organisms, habitat destruction is what pushes them to the brink of extinction, and collecting finishes them off.
It’s easy for us to blame “evil collectors” 
, but it’s less comfortable for us to ask:
“How do we all benefit from the system that drives habitat destruction?” 
There was this fern mania in Victorian era. It was a fad. Ferns are generally easy. European countries are rich and fuel the demands for exotic plants. Orchids are not so easy. You feel some pride to be able to master the technique of orchid culture. Orchids rarely grow from seeds like how vegetable seeds are sown in soil. They grow orchids in flask ! with an elaborate lab process. I did DIY sowing some years back. The plants are at my window. I’m thinking of putting it on some random trees when no one is looking. Two species successfully came out of the bottle but it took me like 7 years when commercial farms take maybe 2 years. Deforestation everywhere is serious. Paphiopedilums from nature are prone to illegal collection. Its leaves are pretty, flowers very unusual looking. but the culture of the plant is not as easy as it seems. It is prone to spider mites even for cultivated plants. The flower forms of natural orchid species are often times inferior to human recreated hybrids but there are a few species which are very showy that they are coveted. There are fads within the orchid growing circle involving several types.
Some orchid hobbyists like natural orchid species and some like all orchids. The nature’s group are motivated by the difficulty to get these natural orchids to bloom. If you are able to make those sensitive species bloom consistently and get the line going and photographed, you obviously must be an expert in orchid culture. so this is what motivates people. Natural orchid species may be rare. There is one book on orchid info…The author writes very well. He makes people want to grow orchids. The cattleyas are exotic orchids to me. Cattleyas and Laelias are from America. Orchid cut flower farming was an industry in my country. There were exports to europe in the past with a few hybrids, Oncidium Goldiana, Arachnis Maggie Oei, and more. These orchids were popular in the past, 70s-80s. I heard restaurants or hotels like to put the cut flowers in flask display. some floral designs. It is very tropical , together with many other Vandaceous hybrids. The Moth orchids, Phalaenopsis became very popular at a point in time in the 80s, 90s til now. These can grow in the house with its most showy flowers. But its culture has some important points. Hobbyists keep killing plants. Commercial growers have mastered the technique to mass produce these plants.
The one weedy orchid is Arundina graminifolia, which spreads to America. That’s what I heard. When I was teenager, there was a place where I go shrimping with my dad. An arid land before I reach the swamp/sea. There were clumps of these orchids. Not commercialised flower, because its flowers are short lived. The government people have no interest to this species until recently. Now there is a variety with half the height of original species. From the natural orchid on the arid land, I took the keiki and it successfully grown in a pot. The other species of note to me is a ground orchid, Eulophia graminea. Not spectacular, small brown flower and common, but cannot be grown at home. Thrive in grass fields or near a compost pile. It likes some heat in the soil and does not grow well at home. The other ground orchid of my area, Eulophia spectabilis, is the rarer one. The orchid shows are where some exotic orchids can be bought. Taiwanese , Thailand vendors come to town with their stuff. There is a red form of Eulophia spectabilis which actually isn’t that spectacular. Ground orchids can be showy but they are deciduous. They didn’t die and the hobbyists don’t know, or maybe the bulbs rotted away.
Depending on what part of the world, there are a few invasive orchids. In the Dominican Republic, one frequently observed orchid is the Philippine Ground Orchid, Spathiglottis plicata, which I have found even along mountain trails away from human habitations; another is the Monk Orchid, Eulophia maculata. In California, one can find Epipactis helleborine, of which Weedy Orchid is one of the common names.
All these are terrestrial orchids. My impression is that epiphytic orchids are less likely to become invasive.
Do terrestrial and ephytic orchids, as categories, differ in how desired they are by collecters?
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