Miltonia Maui Mist 'Red Beauty'

The flower is Miltonia Maui Mist 'Red Beauty' on of the pansy orchids. It beautifully illustrates two distincitive features of orchids. They are the calluses, or thickened structures that are often found on the lips of orchids and appear to be the source of their fragrances if they have any, and the columns which contain the sexual organs of the orchid flower. Orchids do not have separate stamens and pistil but one unit called a column. In this picture it is the white structure that looks like a bird head. It is topped by a cap under which the pollinia, hard masses of pollen are found, and has a sticky opening on the underside which receives the pollen.