orchid

Deadwood-decomposing fungi feed germinating orchids, providing the carbon their tiny seeds don't have.

“It smells pretty bad,” said Brandon Tam, the Huntington’s associate curator of orchids.

The board-certified internist asserted her authority by wielding data, what she called “brute force” and the soft persuasion of an occasional gift of an orchid, picked from her garden in suburban Maryland.

Its velvety, heart-shaped leaves shield a single burnt-mauve flower at the base, looking more like an orchid from the Florida swamps than something you’d expect to see near the river between Iowa and Illinois.

She doted on her cats and her exotic orchids, and was known to neighbors for her delicious homemade bread.