Two terms that get used a lot in the orchid world are “species” and “hybrids”. This is one of those situations where you might have a vague notion of the concepts, but once you hear someone explain it, everything clicks and you pat yourself on the back for knowing it all along.
OK, here’s what they mean:A species is what you find in the jungle (or out in nature). A hybrid is what you get when you cross (i.e., breed) different species together, or breed a hybrid with anything else.
A great way to understand the concepts is to think about dogs. Everyone knows there are purebred dog breeds; consider these to be species, as they are pure-breeding. In other words, if you cross two Pembroke Welsh Corgis, they’ll produce Pembroke Welsh Corgi puppies.
Everyone also knows that there are mutts, which are some mixture of various breeds. So a species orchid is like a purebred dog, while hybrids are like mutts. Purebreds and mutts can be equally lovable (or not, depending on the individual), and that applies equally to orchid species and orchid hybrids. (Yes, I know that all dogs are the same species, Canis familiaris (or Canis lupus), but the analogy works.)
A purebred Pembroke Welsh Corgi 
A Corgi-Golden Retriever hybrid
Around 30,000 known species of orchids occur in the wild, and over the past 200 years, breeders have bred over 150,000 new hybrids. The vast majority of hybrids have hybrids as parents (i.e., mutts begetting more mutts), since production of new hybrids by orchid breeders drives the market: buyers of orchids are always looking for something new. (To the spouses of orchid enthusiasts, one red orchid bloom looks just like any other red orchid bloom, and they simply can’t understand that it’s the little ruffles on the edge or that touch of white on the lip that make something so distinctive, and so desirable.)
The orchids you find at the supermarket are all hybrids — lovely mutts. But where do you go if you want to buy orchid species? Well, you have to go to an orchid specialist (no coincidence that “species” and “specialist” have the same root) like us, Orchid Insanity. You can check out our available species here.