I visited the Missouri Botanical Garden today, not knowing that it was the last day of their annual orchid show. After I found this out at 4:30 pm when I was at the entrance to the show. I ended up staying 15 min after closing time–I was the last one out.

Looking at the wide variety of orchids reminds me of Charles Darwin, who extensively studied orchids, along with finches and everything else he could get his hands on. Just on aesthetic level, viewing these living beings is phenomenal. Just last night I watched Episode 2 of the new version of Cosmos, a broadside attack on creationists, where Neil deGrasse Tyson commented that many people are unnerved when compared to the other primates. Then he mentioned trees, asking how it felt that we are related to them too. I immediately knew how I felt, because I’ve written about the fact that trees are my cousins. That idea is a wonderful idea, that we are all one big (capital D) Diverse family. I had that same feeling today looking at the extraordinary variety (and beauty) of orchids. It didn’t help things that some of the orchids have what appear to be faces (see the first photo).

While I was trying to photograph some of the orchids, a woman asked me, “Do you grow?” I hesitated for a second, to figure out what she was asking, then confessed, “No, I don’t grow.” She said, “You should. They are surprising easy to grow.”