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Named in honor of William Brass, a 19th-century British botanical illustrator,
this orchid grows in the wet forests of tropical
Central and South America, but it is also comfortable in cultivation. Many
species in the genus Brassia are pollinated by parasitic wasps, which
normally lay their eggs on spiders. The patterns and structure of
Brassia orchids resemble a spider in its web enough to encourage these
wasps to lay their eggs in the plants' blossoms and in doing so pollinate them.
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