I have had Dendrobium flowers as a salad garnish at a restaurant a couple of times. And I suspect that those whose orchids are eaten by squirrels and cats will tell you then are not toxic to "pets".

Hi
Seems odd doesn't it?? With all the thousands of species
that only the vanilla is a food source,while grass is indespensible. Wheat,corn,oats,rice bananas.
Have heard that Dendrobiums were used as a vegetable in Asia. I know the flowers are often used but to me the pb had no flavor and were very stringy. You'd have to be very hungry lol.
I keep birds with my orchids and can find no referennce to toxicity .But the birds don't seem to taste the leaves but some will really decimate the flowers lol.
thanks gary

The Chinese use the old dendrobium cane (nobile type) to make soup, stewed with some meat bones, could be very yummy.

Hi
Well to me the canes tasted like very bad string beans.lol have yet to see a recipe for them maybe I fixed them wrong?? Now Vanilla ,there seems to be no culture that doesn't like it?? gary

Gary,

I never tasted it, but heard in the Chinese forum that several hobbiest cooked their old den canes in soup. Some of the dens are valuable herb medicines and are quite expensive, so people will grow on their own instead of buying them.

Qinghua

The tubers of Australian terrestrial orchids and the canes of Dendrobium speciosum were a food source for indigenous Australians. Can't comment on the taste of either but I know a few people who BBQ'd some of their excess Pterostylis curta tubers - they said they were nothing to write home about. I assume speciosum was chosen in preference to other Dendrobium species because there's not much of a meal in a kingianum pseudobulb.

The Turkish icecream Calvin mentioned is made from salep (powdered orchid tubers), which is more commonly used as a drink. Demand for salep, has put a lot of strain on Turkish wild orchid populations and export of salep from Turkey is illegal. I'd say that answers why orchids aren't more commonly used as food. Consuming anything but the floral organs is commercially unsustainable. Even with a sustainable crop like vanilla, the volume of product is so limited that it drives up the price.

The rattailed Oncidium ceboleta is proportedly hallucinogenic.

Cattle and other wildlife in Cental America like to eat bifoliate Cattleyas such as Guaranthe skinneri and G. bowringiana when branches full of them fall to the ground.

The main danger with eating orchids flowers/parts would be pesticide residue.

no real toxicities to report
many of the flowers can be used as salad deor and eaten as well
may not taste as good
but not toxic, and yes, becareful of insecticide and/or fungal/bacterial sprays that may be used on them
best thing for these pathogens in H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide) at 3% (drug store/supermarket ratio) and once that is dried they are fine to eat

orchidguyftl wrote:
>best thing for these pathogens in H2O2
>Hydrogen Peroxide) at 3% (drug store/
>supermarket ratio) and once that is dried
>they are fine to eat

Better yet, use some of the home made organic sprays like chilli, garlic or cinnamon sprays or canola substituted while oil. No need to season or dress them. hehe

I'd definitely not eat an orchid served as a garnish at a restaurant. They're probably just getting them from the florist, which means they're full of who knows what pesticides. Maybe an organic restaurant would be OK, but somehow I doubt they're really getting their orchids from someone growing them specifically for food service. So again, pesticides.

For some reason I have this weird repulsion towards eating flowers. It's so odd, since I eat roots, tubers and leaves. I do eat broccoli, cauliflower and artichokes, but anything else kind of grosses my out! It's unfortunate since I like trying new things, but once I tried deep fried zucchini flowers and I nearly puked. :(