brief flowering orchids

[dinyewl]

I seem to remember hearing or seeing somewhere that there is an orchid that only flowers for a few hours a year, or maybe even ever I can't quite remember. I need to know if it exists, and if it does what the name of it is?

[Clanad]

Could well be the Vanilla orchid. Each flower, open only one day a year, must be hand pollinated to produce a pod from which the vanilla bean is eventually extracted. It is of the species Vanilla planifolia... (Interesting Spanish-Latin origin its name, by the way)...