''Bulbophyllum fletcherianum'', the tongue orchid, Fletcher's bulbophyllum or Spies' bulbophyllum, is a rare

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

native to southern

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. It prefers sunny rock outcrops or mossy tree branches, but besides being lithophytic or

epiphytic An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

, it can also be pseudo-terrestrial. The tongue orchid requires high humidity and moist roots. It is one of the largest species of orchid in the world, with leaves growing to almost 1.8 meters (6 feet) or even 2.1 meters (7 feet) with a width of up to 30 cm (one foot) from a

pseudobulb In botany, a pseudobulb is a storage organ found in many epiphytic and terrestrial sympodial orchids. It is derived from a thickening of the part of a stem between leaf nodes and may be composed of just one internode or several, termed ''heter ...

that is "often larger than tennis balls". The leaf is pendant and can be green, or purple with green edges, and is the largest leaf of any known orchid. It is allied to other large orchid species such as '' B. phalaenopsis'' and '' B. macrobulbon''. The flowers are maroon and spike-shaped, and release an over-powering aroma which attracts blowflies and carrion beetles for pollination. The fragrance of these flowers, like those of B. beccarii, have been compared to a whole herd of dead elephants.fwcos.org/Newsletter op. cit.

Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens

The specimen at the Tropical House, Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens was collected in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

in the early 1970s by a local orchid collector, and is mounted on cork oak. As of 2006, it has flowered just three times: in 1980, 2002, and 2005.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q977406 fletcherianum Epiphytic orchids Orchids of New Guinea Orchids of Papua New Guinea