Survival of a species in the wild essentially relies on its reproductive performance. Orchidaceae, with nearly 25,000 species is one of the most sUccessful families of angiosperms, essentially by virtue of the floral contrivances that have evolved to maximize their reproductive ef ficiency. Among these, the shape of flower, rewards, fragrance and pollination have immensely contributed to their speciation and adaptive radiation. With enormously high incidence of one-to-one specialization in pollination (60-70% orchids), many orchids have become endangered (-10) in the wild due to habitat modification. Reproductive strategy in orchids is full of lure and deceit. Nearly one-third of the known orchids offer no rewards and yet outwit insects in a variety of ways to successfully effect in pollination. Deception for food or sex leading to successful plinaton is the key strategy. In sexually pollinators to visit deceptive orchids, the floral fragrance intercepts the pheromonal communication by luring the male insect the flowers that mimic their female counterpart. The scent of each orchid may be specific for one type of insect pollinator. It is not yet completely understood that how this strategy engenders speciation, maintains the amazing co-adaptive traits and helps in the reduction of costs, which is usually incurred on realizing fitness in, otherwise, flowers with rewards. Reproductive isolation is mandatory to maintain the species boundaries. In orchids, the pollinator mediated pre-fertilization barriers are considered sufficient to result in speciation, as a great majority of wide-hybrids succumb to hybrid sterility manifested due to their divergent karyotypes. There is paucity of data on the genetic architecture of reproductive barriers in orchids, which perhaps requires the mapping of loci involved, onto the chromosomal locations. Owing to obligate reliance on community level symbiotic interactions (pollination and mycorrhizal association), survival and speciation in orchids essentially operates in the ecological context. Knowledge on the present status of these interactions is urgently required for consolidating the base-line data on the biology of Indian orchids. Recent advances in molecular tools can be suitably integrated in the much needed reproductive and demographic studies to have a meaningful rationale on conservation of orchids in the country. In this paper, we mainly present an ecological perspective of reproductive strategies crucial for pollination and seed set in orchids