Epipogium roseum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ghost orchid | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Growing near Hiratsuka-city, Japan | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Order: | Asparagales |
| Family: | Orchidaceae |
| Subfamily: | Epidendroideae |
| Genus: | Epipogium |
| Species: | E. roseum |
| Binomial name | |
| Epipogium roseum | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
|
List
| |
Epipogium roseum, commonly known as ghost orchid, leafless nodding orchid[2] or 虎舌兰 (hu she lan),[3] is a leafless terrestrial mycotrophic orchid in the family Orchidaceae. It has up to sixteen cream-coloured, yellowish or pinkish flowers with an enlarged ovary on a fleshy hollow flowering stem. This ghost orchid is widely distributed in tropical Africa, Asia, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Australia and some Pacific Islands.
Epipogium roseum is a leafless, terrestrial mycotrophic herb that has a fleshy underground rhizome and a fleshy, hollow, dull yellow flowering stem 200–600 mm (8–20 in) tall. There are between two and sixteen resupinate cream-coloured, yellowish or pinkish flowers 10–12 mm (0.4–0.5 in) long with an unusually swollen ovary. The sepals are linear to lance-shaped, 8–11 mm (0.3–0.4 in) long, 2–3 mm (0.08–0.1 in) wide and the petals are often slightly shorter and wider. The dorsal sepal and petals are joined at the base and spread weakly. The labellum is egg-shaped, 11–14 mm (0.4–0.6 in) long, 4–5 mm (0.16–0.20 in) wide with a spur at its base. Flowering occurs from December to March in Australia and from April to September in China. The plants appear a few days after the first heavy rains of the wet season and set seed within a few days.[2][4][5][6]