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THE ORCHID OF MADAGASCAR 2
(Darwin Orchid)
originally painted on oak

The Orchid flower symbolizes beauty, strength, richness.
Exotic and graceful, represents love.
In ancient Greece Orchid were associated with fertility,
and during the Victorian era, Orchid symbolized richness and luxury.
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The Orchid of Madagascar is mostly unique..
It all began back in 1862, in the south of England, Charles Darwin first examined
an unusual flower, an Orchid of Madagascar that seemed to defy the laws of nature.
This flower hid its nectar in the bottom of an elongated nectary
- up to a foot long - extending from the back of the flower.
It seem in-conceivable that any insect could ever reach it.

The star-like Orchid flower
was first discovered by the French botanist Louis-Marie Aubert du Petit-Thouars
in 1798 in the coast of Madagascar island
(Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa)

Charles Darwin predicted that somewhere in Madagascar
must be a gigantic moth feeds from this flower. Darwin peers ridicule his prediction.

150 years later the unusual moth still exist and was discovered
drinking from the Orchid nectary.

A heavenly match of nature.