Huge numbers of people love the striking flowers of the common moth orchid - it is estimated that around 100-120 million potted orchids are sold in Europe each year and they are found in shops and windowsills throughout the world. But orchids get a lot more strange than your average Phalaenopsis.
Orchids have been around since the dinosaurs and at one point made up 10 per cent of the total number of plant species on Earth. There are around 28,000 species of orchid that are known to science and many don't need soil to live. In the tropics they tend to be found in trees, growing from tree branches and trunks. Many orchids also use imitation to attract pollinators, with Europe's very own bee orchid being a case in point.
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Orchids and fungi also have an important relationship, with the tiny orchid seeds parasitising fungi and living underground, using fungi to grow before flowering.
But that's not the only symbiotic relationship orchids have - many orchids can only be pollinated by one kind of insect, like the orchid bee, or Euglossa viridissima. And interestingly in this instance, the reliance goes both ways - some orchid bees need specific orchid species in order to find a mate.
The world of orchids is a remarkable place, and here are 10 of the most amazing orchids you can find out there.
10 of the weirdest orchids in the world
The Tongue Orchid (Bulbophyllum fletcherianum)
The name of this orchid comes from it's particularly recognisable leaf shape - yes, you guessed it, its flowers look like lots of pink tongues. But that's not the only weird thing about this rare orchid - where most orchids are prized for their beautiful smell this one smells like rotting flesh.
One of the largest species of orchids in the world, the tongue orchid is endemic to New Guinea and smells like that in order to attract the blowflies and carrion beetles which pollinate it.
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The ugliest orchid in the world (Gastrodia adnicellus)
Gastrodia agnicellus is not what you'd expect from an orchid. These strange plants, dubbed the ugliest orchid in the world when they were first described in 2024, have fleshy 11mm flowers, with no leaves or photosynthetic tissue.
This is one of the orchids which rely on fungi for nutrition. They spend most of their lives underground and once the conditions are right they flower above ground and their seeds disperse in the wind. Found in Madagascar and identified in 2020 by Johan Hermans of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, this orchid may look gruesome, but it doesn't smell too bad - instead having a citrusy aroma.
Naked Man orchid (Orchis italica)
With the orchid genus name Orchis stemming for the Ancient Greek word for testicle, it makes sense that the body-focused theme might continue when it comes to these plants.
Orchis italica is an orchid that can look, from far away, a little like the pyramidal orchid often found in Britain's meadows, but if you look a little closer, it's possible to see lots of little naked men with helmets on smiling happily back at you. A Mediterranean orchid, it grows up to 50cm in height and likes scrubby farmland and coastal areas.
Ghost orchid (Dendrophylax lindenii)
The remarkable ghost orchid is so named for its thin, spectral-like appearance, but also because it is elusive and hard to spot. The endangered species is found in Florida and Cuba, is very hard to cultivate and is thought to have only one pollinator - the giant sphinx moth. This particular ghost orchid was captured flowering for only the second time in twenty years in a state park in Florida.
The ghost orchid above is not the be confused with Britain's ghost orchid, or Epipogium aphyllum, which is also very elusive - it was spotted for the second time since the 1980s in 2024 having been declared extinct in 2009.
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Darwin's orchid (Angraecum sesquipedale)
Possibly one of the most famous orchids in the world, for its interaction with Charles Darwin, who, on his visit to Madagascar, puzzled over what on earth could possibly pollinate this remarkable plant. It has a long, extended nectar spur - which can stretch up to a metre long - meaning most insects would struggle to get down into the nectar.
Orchids are masters at symbiosis and making sure they thrive, and so it turned out that there was one pollinator that was able to get nectar from Angraecum sesquipedale - the sphinx moth (Xanthopan praedicta).
Monkey face orchid (Dracula Simia)
Think you are constantly spotting faces everywhere? Face pareidolia is common - and it makes a lot of sense when you see these orchids, named due to the apparent face in the middle of the flowers that look a lot like monkeys. There are several species of Dracula orchids (no, not blood sucking, Dracula actually means little dragon) which look like this. Native to Ecuador, the flowers smell of ripe orange.
Large duck orchid (Caleana major)
This orchid feels a little as though it's been flown in from outer space. In fact, its endemic to the south-west of Western Australia and people think it looks a lot like a flying duck. The flower is attractive to many insects - including sawfly - and it has an intriguing way of trapping them - once its labellum is touched it turns downward and grabs the insect which releases pollen before breaking out of the plant's clutches.
Aeranthes bigibbum
Only discovered in 2023 by botanist Johan Hermans, this teeny tiny orchid is endemic to Madagascar. The plant spends its whole life at the top of trees in a small patch of forest in Madagascar and was saved from likely extinction with the help of a bird. Villagers in Madagascar maintain a reserve in the hopes of protecting the helmet vanga (Euryceros prevostii) - a blue-beaked bird. As a result, the small area of forest was protected and it was here that Aeranthes bigibbum was found.
Dendrobium lancilabium subspecies wuryae
This rare orchid was discovered by accident while botanists were scouting out for another rare orchid on the summit of an extinct volcano - Mount Nok, on the Indonesian island of Waigeo in 2022. With bright red trumpet-like flowers, the Dendrobium lancilabium subspecies wuryae is related to the orchid the botanists were heading out to find - the D. azureum which has blue flowers instead of red. They found both on the expedition, which is surely the sign of a successful outing.
Caterpillar orchid (Dendrobium eruciforme)
This tiny species of orchid was one of six new orchids first described in 2025 from Indonesian New Guinea and Maluku. The caterpillar orchid was from New Guinea and is so called because it looks like a tiny colony of caterpillars on a tree trunk.
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