About
The fringed tree orchid is an epiphyte of lowland rainforest from India and Sri Lanka through South-east Asia to eastern Malesia and far north Queensland. Its long, thin pseudobulbs soon drop their leaves, and it bears up to three whitish to lime-green flowers with a hairy-edged lip.
Care at a glance
- Pet safety
- Not recorded. We have no source on whether this plant is safe for cats, dogs or other pets — that is not the same as safe. Keep it out of reach until you have checked.
- People
- Not recorded.
- Mature size
- Pseudobulbs 10–60 cm long.
Field notes
Morphology
Thin, almost wiry, slightly zigzag pseudobulbs 10–60 cm long and 4–5 mm wide, green to yellowish. Lance- to egg-shaped leaves 5–8 cm long are shed by the time a pseudobulb is about a year old. Up to three whitish to lime-green flowers 15–20 mm wide hang on thread-like stalks; the lip is about 18 mm long, tube-shaped near the base, with hairy edges and three hairy ridges along the middle.
Distribution & habitat
Lowland rainforest in India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, from the Himalayas to eastern Malesia, and on Cape York Peninsula in Australia as far south as the McIlwraith Range.
Ecology
Flowers from December to March in Australia and in January and February in the Northern Hemisphere.
History & etymology
Described by John Lindley in 1830 from a specimen collected in Myanmar. The epithet comes from Greek words meaning 'long spike'.
Habitat
- Altitude
- Not recorded
- Altitude class
- —
- Native to
- India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Australia
Cultivation
- Difficulty
- Not recorded
Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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