#1.  Yellow Orchid with purple lips.

#2.  Yellow Orchid with red lips.

#3.  Yellow Orchid with light brown lips.

Let’s compare #1, #2 and #3.  They look almost the same but their lips are in different colours.  Although they have minor differences, they might have a different name for their variety.

#4.  Look carefully and you can see that the little dots are actually randomly gathered at the inner part of the petal, and gradually less dots towards the border of the petals.

#5.  This orchid has red eyes, and a red mouth.

I have done some research on orchid, and learned that different parts of the flower has a different name:-

A- Dorsal sepal, (uppermost “petal” of a flower).
B, C- Petals.
D, E - Lateral sepal.
F - Lip.

Different genus of orchid has different size ratio of A to F.  Usually (A,D,E) or (D,E) are identical, and (B,C) are another identical group.

The following are what I have learned recently, it might not always be correct especially if the orchid is a hybrid.

* Oncidium orchid (dancing lady) has small A,B,C,D,E but out-of-proportionally big lips, F.  That’s why its lip looks like the dress of a lady, and A,B,C look like the head and hands.

**   Phalaenopsis (butterfly orchid or moth orchid) has big B,C.  and A,B,C,D,E look fat, round and usually not curly.

***   Vanda has A,B,C,D,E almost identical.

****  Paphiopedilum (slipper orchid) has big and fat A.  Usually B,C are not found.  D,E are thin and sometimes curly and long.  Most importantly the lips, F look like a slipper.

#6.  The back side of an orchid flower.

#7.  This orchid has A,B,C,D,E all curly.

While I was searching information about orchid, I found a sentence somewhere which said that the number of orchid species are about the same as the number of species of birds.

The information provided above are from my reading and observation.  If there is anything that needs to be corrected, I will appreciate it very much if you can tell me.