Lush Life

So many museums and galleries here - it's hard to choose. For this beautiful beautiful spring day MAD got a taste of tropical flowers at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

The description of Orchids through Darwin's Eyes invited me to explore "... the alluring world of orchids from the perspective of Charles Darwin and those he influenced. This orchid display is a collaboration of the United States Botanic Garden and the Smithsonian Horticulture Services Division. And it is a knockout.

With over 25,000 species, orchids are the most complex, advanced and successful family of flowers on earth. And orchids have captured the hearts and imaginations of people over many years. Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief tells a story of this obsession.

Amid the lushness of these living flowers and foliage was an extinct bee caught in amber with the earliest orchid fossil.

Only problem for MAD was that the text of the exhibit referred to the adaptations made by certain varieties and those varieties were nowhere in sight. Visualizing the specimens that played a role in Darwin's work would have helped in my limited understanding.

Guess I'll have to spend some more time with orchids.