If you have never seen the unusual monkey face orchid, you are in for a real treat. Whenever I show these to people at work, they think that the orchid photos are photoshopped. They aren’t.
There are over 20,000 orchid species in the world and many of them are quite amazing. Orchids produce the most interesting rare and exotic flowers, in all different colours, shapes, smells, and variegations. They also have a number of interesting tricks regarding fertilisation. It’s a bit scary and sad to think that many of the exotic ones are endangered or are on the verge of extinction.
The Dracula Orchid Simia more often referred to as the “Orchid Monkey” is part of a family with more than 110 different varieties with an uncanny resemblance to monkey heads.
Most of Dracula Orchid Simia specimen have been discovered at the mountainous rain-forests of southern Ecuador and Peru.
This flower species was christened by botanist Carlyle A. Lueren in 1978. Dracula simia translates to “little dragon monkey, with reference to its long fang like petals.”
What really captures our hearts about these little buddies are their long faces, formed by a handful of long petals. While the center of the flower may be a dead ringer for our ancestral cousins, the name is a shout-out to the two long sepals (the part of a flower that encloses the developing bud) located at the base of the petals.