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Article doesn't appear to be presenting a similar thesis at all, nearly the opposite. It doesn't have much to say about non-orchid plants, certainly not that th

Article doesn't appear to be presenting a similar thesis at all, nearly the opposite. It doesn't have much to say about non-orchid plants, certainly not that they evolve to be orchid-like. Orchids are famous for being unusual and unusually diverse, that's what the article lingers on.

k__ 3y ago
Yes, sounds more like Brassica oleracea to me, lol.
- krick 3y ago
  No, not really. Brassica oleracea is a single species manually cultivated by humans into variety of forms that are known by different names. Orchids are a huge family of plants. If anything, you should compare them to all Brassicaceae. A quick refresher: Brassicaceae family aside from that notorious Brassica oleracea also contains such things as mustard and horseradish, and even Brassica genus alone contains a whole lot of things that are completely unlike all these Brassica oleracea varieties. And Brassicaceae family is 5 times smaller than Orchidaceae, in terms of number of species. So this is a silly comparison. Talking about all "orchids" is talking about like 15% of all flowering plants. In fact, I would say that even the mere fact that somebody knows a common English word to name all "orchids" kinda suggests that the family is not that diverse… Except, an even larger family is Asteraceae, and they probably look even more like each other. (That said, I actually have no idea why all these broccoli, kale, etc are still considered a single species. Can you really easily cross-bred modern specimens of broccoli and kale?)
  - eszed 3y ago
    > Can you really easily cross-bred modern specimens of broccoli and kale? I know that one particular pairing of broccoli and kale did cross-breed, in my father's garden, many years ago. At least, that's what he (a PhD biologist) told me. They shot up into flower stalks right away, and neither leaves nor florets were edible. Broccoli and cauliflower would interbreed, as well. Sometimes their piebald florets were edible, but usually they were terribly bitter. They were a curiousity, no more.
    - neurostimulant 3y ago
      > and neither leaves nor florets were edible. How did he know that? Did he try to eat them?
      - eszed 3y ago
        Yup! We tried to eat them. He's a scientist, and we were curious kids. Why wouldn't we?
  - mattgrice 3y ago
    Not only CAN you cross-breed them, they do it by themselves, and generally just end up being wild-type, which is what you see all over California. Just a kind of spindly plant with no elaborate leaves or flower clusters, greenish yellow flowers.
deleted 3y ago
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Aunche 3y ago
A better example of crabs in the plant world are trees. There’s no such thing as a tree (phylogenetically) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29621646 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29621646

k__ 3y ago

Yes, sounds more like Brassica oleracea to me, lol.

krick 3y ago
No, not really. Brassica oleracea is a single species manually cultivated by humans into variety of forms that are known by different names. Orchids are a huge family of plants. If anything, you should compare them to all Brassicaceae. A quick refresher: Brassicaceae family aside from that notorious Brassica oleracea also contains such things as mustard and horseradish, and even Brassica genus alone contains a whole lot of things that are completely unlike all these Brassica oleracea varieties. And Brassicaceae family is 5 times smaller than Orchidaceae, in terms of number of species. So this is a silly comparison. Talking about all "orchids" is talking about like 15% of all flowering plants. In fact, I would say that even the mere fact that somebody knows a common English word to name all "orchids" kinda suggests that the family is not that diverse… Except, an even larger family is Asteraceae, and they probably look even more like each other. (That said, I actually have no idea why all these broccoli, kale, etc are still considered a single species. Can you really easily cross-bred modern specimens of broccoli and kale?)
- eszed 3y ago
  > Can you really easily cross-bred modern specimens of broccoli and kale? I know that one particular pairing of broccoli and kale did cross-breed, in my father's garden, many years ago. At least, that's what he (a PhD biologist) told me. They shot up into flower stalks right away, and neither leaves nor florets were edible. Broccoli and cauliflower would interbreed, as well. Sometimes their piebald florets were edible, but usually they were terribly bitter. They were a curiousity, no more.
  - neurostimulant 3y ago
    > and neither leaves nor florets were edible. How did he know that? Did he try to eat them?
    - eszed 3y ago
      Yup! We tried to eat them. He's a scientist, and we were curious kids. Why wouldn't we?
- mattgrice 3y ago
  Not only CAN you cross-breed them, they do it by themselves, and generally just end up being wild-type, which is what you see all over California. Just a kind of spindly plant with no elaborate leaves or flower clusters, greenish yellow flowers.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

Aunche 3y ago

A better example of crabs in the plant world are trees. There’s no such thing as a tree (phylogenetically) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29621646 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29621646