The Collaborative International Dictionary
Orchidaceous \Or`chi*da"ceous\, a. (Bot.) Pertaining to, or resembling, a natural order ( Orchidace[ae]) of endogenous plants of which the genus Orchis is the type. They are mostly perennial herbs having the stamens and pistils united in a single column, and normally three petals and three sepals, all adherent to the ovary. The flowers are curiously shaped, often resembling insects, the odd or lower petal (called the lip) being unlike the others, and sometimes of a strange and unexpected appearance. About one hundred species occur in the United States, but several thousand in the tropics.
Note: Over three hundred genera are recognized.
Wiktionary
a. 1 (context botany English) Of or pertaining to ''orchid''. 2 Characterized by ostentatiousness; showy.
WordNet
Usage examples of "orchidaceous".
The day they arrived in New York, they had aimed the Airstream directly for Seventy-third and Broadway, where a one-bedroom apartment awaited them in the orchidaceous Ansonia Hotel.
Many of our orchidaceous plants absolutely require the visits of moths to remove their pollen-masses and thus to fertilise them.
He took a step toward the blazing, orchidaceous eyes, but found his own drawn to the frame.
It was bright yet not too orchidaceous, though it had been decorated at a period when America had been roused to a mania for wildly coloured bathrooms, stoves, stew-pans, typewriters, even toilet paper.
Then says Reason, if they occur in orchidaceous plants, why should they not also occur in corn plants?
The day they arrived in New York, they had aimed the Airstream directly for Seventy-third and Broadway, where a one-bedroom apartment awaited them in the orchidaceous Ansonia Hotel.