About
The piggyback orchid is a tiny epiphyte whose brittle rhizome creeps over rough bark, sending up small single-leaved pseudobulbs. Its one or two cream flowers, with a red and yellow lip, last only briefly.
Field notes
Morphology
A brittle rhizome about 3 mm thick creeps over bark, bearing shiny pseudobulbs 4–5 cm long on short stalks, each topped by one dark green leaf 5–8 cm long. One or two cream flowers 1.2–1.5 cm wide appear at the leaf base; the lip is yellow and red.
Distribution & habitat
Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, New Guinea and Cape York Peninsula south to Innisfail, Australia, in mangroves, humid scrub, forest and rainforest.
Ecology
Grows mainly on rough-barked trees.
History & etymology
Described by Carl Ludwig Blume in 1825 as Desmotrichum convexum; John Lindley transferred it to Dendrobium in 1831.
Habitat
- Altitude
- Not recorded
- Altitude class
- —
- Native to
- Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia
Cultivation
- Difficulty
- Not recorded
Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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