Malaxis lowii (E.Morren) Ames 1921 Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt.

Plant Photo courtesy of Danny Lentz Copyright ©

to LATE THROUGH EARLY

Common Name or Meaning Low's Malaxis [English Orchidist 1800's]

Flower Size .8" [2 cm]

Found only in Borneo in mixed lowland and lower montane forests at elevations of sealevel to 1500 [2100] meters as a miniature sized, warm to cool growing terrestrial orchid occuring in leaf-litter amid rocks or in swampy alluvial soils with a creeping fleshy rhizome, giving rise to fleshy, swollen below stems carryingnarrowly elliptic, acuminate, asymetrical basally, marginally undulate, dull brownish purple to golden brown, with a broad central green-white band above and purple veins below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall and winter to early spring on a lax to somewhat dense, bright purple, to 9.6" [24 cm] long, many flowered inflorescence arising with linear, acuminate, reflexed, dark purple floral bracts.

Synonyms *Microstylis lowi E. Morren 1884

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of Borneo Vol 1 Chan, Shim, Lamb & Wood 1994; A Checklist of the Orchids of Borneo Wood & Cribb 1994; Orchids of Sarawak Beaman & Wood 2001