Blame it on my northern bias, but I cannot think of a single food in the orchid family beyond vanilla (Vanilla spp.). For the largest plant family (or second largest; depending on who you ask, Asteraceae may be the largest plant family), there is a real dearth of edible species in the Orchidaceae family.
We had the pleasure to visit a sustainable, diverse, organic farm down in Belize last year – our friends there grew cacao, mahogany, teak, oranges, and other tropical goodies. One thing they were experimenting with was growing vanilla. It was trained up a tree, and sometimes “planted” midway up the tree in a little pocket of mulch.
During our visit with these folks, we got stuck for two hours in a mud pit in the orange grove, where I saw this beauty, a yet to be identified (by me) orchid, growing off the trunk of an orange tree.
I wonder sometimes why we like orchids so much. But, man, we are crazy about them – and I am crazy about the one you photographed above. In Kaua’i last month, we visited a permanent outdoor store that sold nothing but orchids. Seeing the variety was like reading tons and tons of really good poetry: so deeply gorgeous it was a little overwhelming. Thanks for sharing such a beautiful picture and such an amazing detail: that this one grew off of an orange tree. Wow.