Special tours will also be organized to mark the anniversary, offering an insight into the history and geological values of the park.Continue reading
Thematic walks will present the blooming tropical orchids of the University of Szeged’s Botanical Garden on Saturday and then on February 22, the organizers informed MTI.
Most of the tropical orchids grown in greenhouses in temperate regions produce their spectacular and exotic flowers in autumn and winter, and the orchid house in the University of Szeged (SZTE) Botanical Garden is at its most beautiful during this time. The Botanical Garden’s collection contains more than 250 specimens of around half a hundred genera, including botanical species and hybrids.
During the first days of February, almost a hundred species and varieties of orchids from the garden’s orchid collection bloom at the same time. You can find out more about them on Saturday and on February 22 during guided tours, which are open to the public by appointment.
Paphiopedilum, often called the Venus slipper. Photo: Wikipedia
The orchids are the most numerous and unique family of plants in the world, due to their diversity of forms, their special reproductive biology, and their way of life. There are up to 30,000 naturally evolved species in the family and around 150,000 hybrid species. They are found in almost all terrestrial habitats on all continents except deserts and glaciers. More than 50 species are native to the Carpathian Basin, all of which are terrestrial.
Most of the tropical orchids at the Botanical Garden in Szeged are greenhouse and epiphytic, but some are also ground-dwelling, such as the very exotic-looking Paphiopedilum, often called the Venus slipper, named for the interesting shape of their flowers.
Of the orchid species that require colder conditions in the garden, the boat orchids, popular in southeast Asia for their long-lasting flowers, begin to open their petals in mid-winter.
Boat orchid. Photo: Wikipedia
For those who cannot make it to the thematic walks, they can see the orchid collection at the Botanical Garden from 10am to 3pm on Saturdays from March. From May, when the butterfly garden with tropical butterflies is scheduled to open, the orchid collection will be open continuously.
Via MTI, Featured photo via Pixabay