Am I blue?

How do you know, when you think blue---when you say blue---that you are talking about the same blue as anyone else?

You cannot get a grip on blue.

Blue is the sky, the sea, a god's eye, a devil's tail, a birth, a strangulation, a virgin's cloak, a monkey's ass.  It's a butterfly, a bird, a spicy joke, the saddest song, the brightest day.

Blue is sly, slick, it slides into the room sideways, a slippery trickster.

This is a story about the color blue, and like blue, there's nothing true about it.  Blue is beauty, not truth."True blue" is a ruse, a rhyme; it's there, then it's not.  Blue is a deeply sneaky color.

~ Christopher Moore, Sacre Bleu:  A Comedy d'Art

Linking to Floral Friday Fotos

Today's Flowers

Dendrobium anosmum

Dendrobium anosmum, an unscented dendrobium,  locally known as Sanggumay, is native to the Philippines, Borneo, New Guinea, Thailand and Sri Lanka.  The genus Dendrobium contains approximately 1,200 species making it one of the largest genera in the orchid family.  Dendrobiums are adapted to monsoon climates and long dry periods stimulate flower production.  This species is popular for lei production because it is relatively long-lasting with flowers staying fresh for up to 4 days and does not crush easily.

Spotted the blooms at my friend's grandmother's garden when we visited her recently.

"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of.  You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life." ~ Albert Camus

Linking to Floral Friday Fotos

Today's Flower

Orchids

Even if you think the Big Bang created the stars, don't you wonder who sent the flowers? ~ Robert Brault

Linking to Today's Flower

Bletia lilacina

Bletia is a genus of about 30 species of orchids (family Orchidaceae), almost all of which are terrestrial. It is named after Spanish botanist and pharmacist Don Luis Blet. The genus is distributed from Florida south to Brazil.

These were taken at the garden in BHS-Central.

I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men. ~Lao  Tze

 Linking to Floral Friday Fotos

Today's Flowers

Moth Orchid

For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it.

For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it.

For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.

~Ivan Panin

 

 

Linking to Floral Friday Fotos, Flower Art Friday and Today's Flowers

Exotic Enchanter

It's not that you should never love something so much that it can control you.
It's that you need to love something that much so you can never be controlled.
It's not a weakness.
It's your best strength. 

~ Patrick Ness

Linking to Floral Friday Fotos and Today's Flowers

O/ABC Wednesday

 

O is for Orchidaceae

Orchidaceae, the Orchid Family, is the largest family of flowering plants.  It is a morphologically diverse and widespread family of monocots in the order Asparagales.  The Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew list 880 genera, and nearly 22,000 accepted species, but the exact number is unknown (perhaps as many as 26,000 species) because of taxonomic disputes. The largest genera are Bulbophyllum (2,000 species), Epidendrum (1,500 species), Dendrobium (1,400 species) and Pleurothallis (1,000 species).  The family also includes Vanilla (the genus of vanilla plant), Orchis (type genus),  and many commonly cultivated plants such as Phalaenopsis and Cattleya.  Horticulturists have also produced more than 10,000 hybrids and cultivars.

There are about 944 species of orchids endemic to the Philippines.

The name comes from a Greek word orkhis that literally means "testicle" because of the shape of the root.  Orchid was introduced in 1845 by John Lindley in School Botany. 

The Greek myth of Orchis explains the origin of the plants.  Orchis, the son of a nymph and a satyr, came upon the festival of Dionysios in the forest. He drank too much, and attempted to rape a priestess of Dionysios.  For his insult, he was torn apart by the Bacchanalians.  His father prayed for him to be restored but the gods instead changed him into a flower.  

These flowers were previously called Orchis, Satyrion, or ballockwort.

The world's richest concentration of orchid varieties is found in the tropics, mostly Asia, South and Central America; but they are also found above the Arctic Circle and near Antarctica.

Linking to ABC Wednesday