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Founded by Alfrisio di Vita, the non-profit association “Hortus Orchis” is committed to protecting and enhancing the great biological and cultural heritage of the collection of orchids which goes by the same name (“Hortus Orchis”). There are 707 different species and many hybrids of some 300 varieties in this truly astounding collection. It is arranged according to the different origins of the flowers, including tropical and subtropical areas of Asia, Central America, South-America, Africa, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Africa, Malaysia, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Indonesia, the Indochinese Peninsula, and Papua.
Some of the specimens are extremely rare if not already disappeared in any natural environment. All these wonders of mother nature are grown in three greenhouses at different temperatures.

Alfrisio di Vita got lovestruck with orchids in August 1978, during a family holiday in Sri Lanka (ancient Ceylon), when he visited the Peradeniya Botanical Garden and its “Orchid House”. A few months later, on his way home from Tokyo, he briefly stopped in Bangkok and he bought his first three orchids (Oncidium sphacelatum, Dendrobium densiflorum and a Vanda hybrid).

He soon ended up with a huge and ever-growing collection, documenting, cataloging and photographing every single specimen. The result of his painstaking and dedicated work is available also on www.hortusorchis.org so that more amateurs can approach these wonders of nature, benefiting from such a wealth of professional experience and priceless data.

The “Hortus Orchis” collection has been recently recognized by SOI (Italian Fruit and Vegetable Company) as a “National Relevant Collection”.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)