About
The common button orchid is a tiny mat-forming orchid of far north Queensland rainforest. Round, fleshy button-like leaves lie flat on bark or rock, and single small striped flowers have a bright orange lip.
Field notes
Morphology
Branching rhizomes about 1 mm thick, covered in papery bracts, form a spreading mat. Fleshy, egg-shaped to round dark green leaves 4–10 mm wide lie flat on the surface. Each flower is only 4–7 mm across, white, cream or pink with red stripes and a prominent orange labellum.
Distribution & habitat
Endemic to far north Queensland, Australia, on rocks, cliffs and trees in rainforest between Mount Finnigan and Mackay.
History & etymology
Described by Ferdinand von Mueller as Bulbophyllum lichenastrum from a specimen John Dallachy collected near Rockingham Bay; Robert Allen Rolfe moved it to Dendrobium in 1905.
Habitat
- Altitude
- Not recorded
- Altitude class
- —
- Native to
- Australia
Cultivation
- Difficulty
- Not recorded
Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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