You expect to find hemlocks, white pine, red buds and mountain laurel in Pennsylvania, but who'd have thought you could also find orchids?

"When you mention the word 'orchid,' people usually think in term of the tropics and tropical orchids," said Victor Shields, 14, of Spraggs, Greene County, who seems to have an ability to hone in on them in the wild. "But there are actually 50 species in this state, with 22 of them indigenous to southwestern Pennsylvania."

According to the Nature Conservancy, while 95 percent of the world's orchids are native to the tropics and sub-tropics, the remaining five percent are found in cooler climates, even as far north as Alaska. In fact, orchids, or Orchidaceae, are one of the largest plant families and grow on six of the world's seven continents.

At the age of 11, Victor found his very first wild orchid while walking with his cousin in the woods near an uncle's home.

"It had green variegated leaves that resembled broken glass, and I immediately assumed it was an orchid," he said. "Somehow when I see one, I know what it is."

Paging through his grandmother's book "Native Wildflowers of Pennsylvania," which has a section in back devoted to orchids, he learned that his find happened to be a downy rattlesnake plantain orchid, the most common orchid in the state.

This initial horticultural encounter whetted his appetite to learn more about native wild orchids.

His father, Leigh, likes to tell an anecdote about the day he and Victor were driving in a car and his son excitedly asked him to stop the car.

"From the road, Victor spotted a purple fringed orchid and got out of the car to photograph it," he said.

So far, the budding orchidologist has found seven of southwestern Pennsylvania's 22 species in the area around his home and located another four in the immediate region. He even found near his uncle's house in Spraggs a crane-fly orchid that isn't supposed to be indigenous to Greene County.

"None of the native orchids look alike, but you can usually tell a plant's an orchid by its roots," he said. "Many of them have bulbs; others have thick roots for their size. Some have a nice odor while others don't have any scent at all. Some, like the crane-fly and puttyroot orchids, even have winter leaves."

When the youngster finds a patch of wild orchids that are plentiful enough, he'll sometimes take one home to plant in the orchid garden he has built up the hill from his house. The five-by-five foot enclosure is surrounded by concrete blocks and covered with a screen to discourage deer from stepping inside.

Currently, Victor's orchid garden has nine plants, which include a blooming lily-leaved twayblade orchid and two ragged-fringed orchids that are just about ready to bloom.

"Wild native orchids don't require much care," he said. "In fact, they don't like to be bothered. Some like the sun, but most prefer shade. Insects don't seem to feed on them, but deer will sometimes nibble on their tops."

Victor admits to having bought several of his orchids on the Internet, a resource he said he often consults.

He's also interested in tropical orchids, which he said are more difficult to grow.

Eventually, when he gets older, he may try to sell wild orchids and native Pennsylvania plants from his father's nursery in Spraggs. At the moment, however, he's trying to learn how to grow orchids from seeds, a task he has not yet been able to master.

"The seeds are very small -- almost like dust -- and I haven't been able to make them grow," he said. "However, I just came across a book titled 'How to Grow Wild Orchids,' which explains how to cultivate them from seed. Hopefully, I'll soon become successful in my newest area of interest."