More than 1,200 species of orchids from 17 countries and regions made a stunning display at the "Laofengxiang" Second Shanghai International Orchid Show which kicked off on March 29.

The final champion of the show went to Phragmipedium kovachii – an orchid species discovered in 2001 in the Amazon jungle of NE Peru, and which is considered to be the most important orchid species to be found in the Neotropics in the last 100 years. It is a terrestrial orchid, growing in tufts. Its flowers are 11–15 cm wide and dark pink to royal purple.

Ansellia Africana, an achievement of the Orchids in East Africa Cultivation project, was successfully flowering in Chenshan Botanical Garden for the first time. Commonly known as African Ansellia or leopard orchid, it is in fact a complex group of species which share a common floral structure and growth habit. The plants are found throughout neotropical and subtropical Africa. It was named after John Ansell, an English assistant botanist, who found the first specimens in 1841 on Fernando Po Island in West Africa.

Other rare species include Encyclia Cordigera, Renanthera Citrine, Cattleya Aurantiaca, Masdevallia Polysticta to name a few.

Some orchids have astonishing shapes. For example, native to Central America, Prosthechea Cochleata looks like a small octopus. Angraecum Leonis has white flowers and it takes up to 30 cm to reach the inner nectary, Darwin had predicted that a kind of humming bird which has a long beak to suck the nectar may exist and this prediction was later confirmed.

Cypripedium henryi, a native species unique to China, appeared at the show as well.

Rare orchids make a stunning display at the "Laofengxiang" Second Shanghai International Orchid Show.

Rare orchids make a stunning display at the "Laofengxiang" Second Shanghai International Orchid Show.