How many different kinds of orchids are there?

[mycoolgirl]

I read an article in a very old National geographic magazine long ago about orchids and I was amazed about how many there were with new variety's being discovered every year. This makes curious about how many are catalogued now. Any help available would be appreciated.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

My guess is about 25,000 species. Not including hybrids.

[WhiteRabbit]

from wikipedia ...

it is currently believed to be the second largest family of flowering plants (only the Asteraceae is larger), with between 21,950 and 26,049 currently accepted species, found in 880 genera.[1][2] The number of orchid species equals more than twice the number of bird species, and about four times the number of mammal species. It also encompasses about 6–11% of all seed plants.


Orchidaceae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[kavanaru]

orchid species estimated at around 25 000... orchid hybrids, must be over 250 000 (surely a lot more...)

a normal person would tell yopu: There too many orchids!!
An orchids collector would tell you: Not enough to have a complete good collection!

:-)

[Connie Star]

Originally Posted by kavanaru

orchid species estimated at around 25 000... orchid hybrids, must be over 250 000 (surely a lot more...)

a normal person would tell yopu: There too many orchids!!
An orchids collector would tell you: Not enough to have a complete good collection!

:-)

:r ofl:

[Ray]

There are some 250,000 registered hybrids and countless others that are not.

I had hear 30,000 species...

[Tindomul]

I am not home right now to look. But "The Plant Book" the dictionary of plants will tell you exactly how many genera and species there are known to exist as of the latest published date of the book. If anyone has it, look, otherwise I will post the numbers on Saturday when I get back.
Ray thats a heck of a lot of Hybrids, no wonder its hard to keep track of them all.