Bulbophyllum hirtum [Sm.]Lindl. 1828 SECTION Pleiophyllus J.J.Sm 1914

Flower Closeup Photos courtesy of Manorot Tangsaveepha Copyright ©, and the Butterfly and Orchids Photo Gallery

Another Inflorescence showing successive flowering apex

Flower Closeup Photo courtesy of Dale Borders

FrangrancePart shadeWarmColdLATE Summer

Common Name The Bristly Bulbophyllum - In China Luo Ye Shi Dou Lan

Flower Size 1/4" [6 mm]

Found in south Yunnan Province of China, Assam, eastern Himalayas, Nepal, Sikkim, Thailand, Myanamar and Vietnam in humid, mossy, mixed and coniferous forests on mossy branches of old dwarf, gnarled trees and in semi-deciduous and deciduous dry lowland forests and savana-like woodlands as an uncommon, creeping, small sized, warm to cold growing bifoliate epiphyte at elevations of 800 to 2700 meters on limestone outcroppings with crowded, globose to ovoid-cylindric, pseudobulbs carrying two apical, deciduous, oblong-lanceolate to oblong-oblanceoalte, flaccid, subacute, petiolate base leaves and blooms after it drops the deciduous leaves in the late summer on a basal, erect to arcuate then pendant, 10" [25 cm] long, densely many flowered, racemose, glandular pubescent inflorescence with distant, glabrous, lanceoate, acute sheaths and bnroadly ovate floral bracts and carrying small, hairy, strongly fragrant [cinnamon] flowers held way above the leaves. This species needs a short dry season before it will bloom properly.

This species and Bulbophyllum kerrii are considered by many to be synomonous, if true then B hirtum takes precedence.

Synonyms Bulbophyllum suave Griff. 1851; Phyllorchis hirta (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; *Stelis hirta Sm. 1816; Tribrachia hirta Lindl. 1821

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Orchids of Burma Grant 1895/95; The Orchids of Sikkim-Himalaya Part 1 King & Pantling 1898 drawing ok; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1959 fide drawing; AOS Bulletin Vol 52 No 6 1983 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 65 No 12 1996 photo; Lindleyana Vol 14 No 4 2000; Bulbophyllums and Their Allies Seigerist 2001; A Field Guide to the Wild Orchids of Thailand Vaddhanaphuti 2001 photo fide; Orchid Genera in Thailand Vol VIII Bulbiphyllum Thou. Seidenfaden 1990; Orchids Of India II Biodiversity & Status of Bulbophyllum Thou Augustine & Kumar 2001 drawing/photo ok; Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002; Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007; Flora of China Vol 25 Zhengyi, Raven & Deyuan 2009; Flora of China Vol 25 Zhengyi, Raven & Deyuan 2010 drawing fide; The Wild Orchids in Yunnan Xu Xiang Ye & Liu 2010 photos fide;

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------