''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. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowerin ...

native to southern

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

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

lithophytic Lithophytes are plants that grow in or on rocks. They can be classified as either epilithic (or epipetric) or endolithic; epilithic lithophytes grow on the surfaces of rocks, while endolithic lithophytes grow in the crevices of rocks (and are als ...

epiphytic An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a 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 epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

, 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 The 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 heteroblastic and ...

the size of an orange. 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 beetle Silphidae is a family of beetles that are known commonly as large carrion beetles, carrion beetles or burying beetles. There are two subfamilies: Silphinae and Nicrophorinae. Nicrophorines are sometimes known as sexton beetles. The number of sp ...

s 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 (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

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