Family tree for orchids explains their astonishing variability

Orchids, a fantastically complicated and diverse group of flowering plants, have long blended the exotic with the beautiful. The estimated 25,000 orchid species outnumber mammals, reptiles and birds combined. Previously, botanists have proposed more than a half dozen explanations for this diversity. Now, research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison corroborates many of these explanations, but finds no evidence for other logical suggestions, such as that deceitful pollination.
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