Seeds

Orchid fruits are long husks which contain thousands of tiny seeds. When the fruits ripen, the husks open and the seeds are carried away by wind and water. The stems with the empty husks are durable and can be found even in the next year, above you will see the fruits of Dactylorhiza maculata.

Orchids can produce many seeds, a husk of Cypripedium calceolous for example, can contain about 40000 seeds. Their small size and light weight allows them to be carried a long distance, however they have no nutritive reserves and if they don't fall onto a place with a suitable mycorrhiza fungus, they will die.