BUTTERFLY-FLOWER ORCHID
Papilionanthe teres
The 400
acre wooded campus of the Indian Institute of Science
in Bangalore, India, is “A Botanist’s Delight” and during a recent visit, I captured
this image of a rare Orchid blooming at the Horticultural Nursery and Gardens
there.
Unable
to identify the Orchid, I sent in a couple of photographs to The Orchid Society of
Karnataka (TOSKAR) and bingo came the reply
from Ravee of TOSKAR, who identified it as the Papilionanthe orchid. Thank you
Ravee.
Searching
the internet, I gathered that this is the Papilionathe teres species and was
first described by German Botanist, Taxonomist and Orchid expert Friedrich Richard
Rudolf Schlechter in 1915. He derived the name from the Latin – papilio
(for butterfly) and anthe (for flower), to describe the colorful butterfly like
flowers of this plant.
Papilionanthe
teres
Papilionanthe
teres occurs widely in Southeast Asia, East of Nepal, Bhutan and North East
India, Anandaman and Nicobar Islands, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and
southern China.
The
Papilionanthe blooms in summer with showy fragrant flowers. The flowers vary in
size (5-10 cm in diameter) and color. They are usually pale pink or pink with a
dark pink lip and a yellow center.
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