Grammatophyllum speciosum | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Monocots |
Order: | Asparagales |
Family: | Orchidaceae |
Subfamily: | Epidendroideae |
Genus: | Grammatophyllum |
Species: | G. speciosum |
Binomial name | |
Grammatophyllum speciosum | |
Synonyms [2] | |
Grammatophyllum speciosum, also called giant orchid, tiger orchid, sugar cane orchid or queen of the orchids, is a species of orchid native to Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi) and Malaysia. It has also been recorded in the Philippines, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. It is listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's tallest orchid, with specimens recorded up to 7.62 metres (25 ft) in height. [3]
It is an epiphytic and occasionally a lithophytic plant, forming spectacular root bundles. Its cylindric pseudobulbs can grow to a length of 2.5 m. It can grow to gigantic clusters weighing from several hundred kilograms to more than one ton. [4] One collected in 1893 by Frederick K. Sander & Co. near Penang Island in Malaysia weighed a long ton (=a metric ton). Half was sent to the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago and the other half to the Singapore Botanic Garden. [5] By 1902, the Singapore specimen had grown to be 47 feet (14 meters) in girth by ten feet (three meters) high and bore simultaneously 2090 five-inch-wide flowers plus 1110 unopened buds. [6] Much more recently, in A.D. 2000, biologists Tim Laman and Phil Atkinson found one in Borneo 25 feet (7.6 meters) wide and bearing between 2500 and 5000 flowers. The plant completely encircled the host tree 150 feet (46 meters) above ground. [7] [8] The oldest individual orchid plant is also a G. speciosum. Planted in the Singapore Botanic Garden in 1861 by Garden Director Lawrence Niven and his staff, it was 154 years old in 2015. [9] and so would now (2022) be 161 years of age. The plant is also five meters (16 feet) in width.
Each raceme can grow to a height of 3m, bearing up to eighty flowers, each 10 cm wide. The flowers are yellow colored with maroon or dark red spots. These flowers are remarkable, since the lowest flowers have no lip and these flowers function as osmophores for the entire inflorescence and continue to emit chemical scent to attract pollinators as flowers open in succession. It blooms only once every two to four years. This orchid can, however, remain in bloom for up to two months. Each individual flower can remain fresh for as long as six weeks. [10] In addition, this plant has been found to have potential medicinal benefits; for example one research article by Harikarnpakdee and Chowjarean found it specifically aided in wound healing in humans. [11]
It is native to New Guinea, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines, growing in crotches of large trees on exposed areas of the lowland tropical rainforest. [16]
A giant orchid weighing two tons was one of the highlights in the 1851 exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London.
Because of its enormous size, it is rarely cultivated as this species is usually too large to be accommodated in most greenhouses. Cultivated specimens of this species are always grown as terrestrials, as the plants grow as both an epiphyte and terrestrial in habitat. [17]
Eulophia, commonly known as corduroy orchids, is a genus of about two hundred species of flowering plants in the orchid family, Orchidaceae. Most Eulophia orchids are terrestrial but some are deciduous while others are evergreen. They either have an underground rhizome or pseudobulbs on the surface and those species with leaves have them on the end of a fleshy stem. The flowers are arranged on a thin flowering spike, the flowers having sepals which are larger than the petals. The genus is widely distributed but most species are found in Africa and Asia, usually growing in shady places with grass or shrubs in forests.
Grammatophyllum, sometimes abbreviated in horticultural trade as Gram, is a genus of 13 currently known orchid species. The name is derived from the Greek words 'gramma' and 'phyllon' (leaf), referring to the parallel leaf veins or the markings of the perianth. This epiphytic genus occurs in dense rainforest from Indo-China, to Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea, and the Southwest Pacific islands.
Ansellia is considered a monotypic genus of orchid, with only one species, Ansellia africana, commonly known as African ansellia or leopard orchid, however, it may in fact be a complex group of species which share common floral structure and growth habit.
Rafflesia arnoldii, the corpse flower, or giant padma, is a species of flowering plant in the parasitic genus Rafflesia. It is noted for producing the largest individual flower on Earth. It has a strong and unpleasant odor of decaying flesh. It is native to the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo. Although there are some plants with larger flowering organs like the titan arum and talipot palm, those are technically clusters of many flowers.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya are about 5.5 km to the west of the city of Kandy in the Central Province of Sri Lanka. In 2016, the garden was visited by 1.2 million locals and 400,000 foreign visitors. It is near the Mahaweli River. It is renowned for its collection of orchids. The garden includes more than 4000 species of plants, including orchids, spices, medicinal plants and palm trees. Attached to it is the "National Herbarium of Sri Lanka". The total area of the botanical garden is 147 acres (0.59 km2), at 460 meters above sea level, and with a 200-day annual rainfall. It is managed by the Department of national botanic gardens.
Dendrobium speciosum, commonly known as the rock orchid or cane orchid, is a species of highly variable Australian orchid. Its varieties can be found in a range of habitats as epiphytes or lithophytes. It has a continuous distribution along the east coast of Australia and in distinct populations along the Tropic of Capricorn. As a lithophyte, it forms gigantic spreading colonies on rocks and cliff faces, often exposed to full sun, with its roots forming dense, matted beds across the rock that anchor the plant. It can be found at altitudes from sea level to 900 metres (3,000 ft).
Dipodium, commonly known as hyacinth orchids, is a genus of about forty species of orchids native to tropical, subtropical and temperate regions of south-east Asia, New Guinea, the Pacific Islands and Australia. It includes both terrestrial and climbing species, some with leaves and some leafless, but all with large, often colourful flowers on tall flowering stems. It is the only genus of its alliance, Dipodium.
Charles Curtis was an English botanist who was sent by James Veitch & Sons to search for new plant species in Madagascar, Borneo, Sumatra, Java and the Moluccas, before settling in Penang, where he became the first superintendent of the Penang Botanic Gardens.
Amorphophallus titanum, the titan arum, is a flowering plant in the family Araceae. It has the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. The inflorescence of the talipot palm, Corypha umbraculifera, is larger, but it is branched rather than unbranched. A. titanum is endemic to rainforests on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Bromheadia finlaysoniana, commonly known as the pale reed orchid and as Bromheadia pulchra in Australia, is a plant in the orchid family and is native to areas from Indochina to northern Australia. It is a terrestrial orchid with a tough upright, stem and stiffly spreading, elliptic to egg-shaped leaves. There is a long flowering stem with a short zig-zag section near the end where single flowers open in succession. The flowers are white with a yellow labellum.
The North-West University Botanical Garden on the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University (NWU) is the only botanical garden in the North West Province of South Africa. The Garden spans just under three hectares and is open to the public.
Tiger orchid is a common name for several orchids and may refer to:
Giant orchid is a common name for several plants and may refer to:
Eulophia ecristata, synonym Orthochilus ecristatus, or giant orchid, is a terrestrial species of orchid native to Cuba and to the southeastern United States. In 2014, it was proposed that the species should be transferred to the genus Orthochilus, but as of December 2023 this was not accepted by Plants of the World Online. This is one of several species known as a "giant orchid".
Oeceoclades seychellarum is a terrestrial orchid species in the genus Oeceoclades that was endemic to the island of Mahé in the Seychelles but is now considered to be extinct. Its sepals and petals are yellowish-white, while the labellum is white with some streaks. This species is only represented by the type specimen, collected in May 1902 from the Cascade Estate on the island of Mahé at an elevation of 900 feet (270 m) in what was then a mountain forest. The location from which the type specimen was collected is now degraded by human activity and invasive plants. Oeceoclades seychellarum was listed as being cultivated at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1905, but not after that date.
Cyrtopodium longibulbosum, the cana-cana, of the Ecuadorian Amazon and adjacent Peru and possibly Colombia is the largest Orchid species in the Western Hemisphere with large clusters of pseudobulbs each up to 11 ft 6 in in length by about two inches (5.1 cm) in width, yet it remained unknown to science until 1993.
Eulophia stenopetala is a species of orchid endemic to Bhutan. The only material on this species from Bhutan is the holotype specimen collected by William Griffith in Bhutan in 1838 and resides at the Kew Herbarium with catalogue number K000852991. Another specimen without any information on its location is also available at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center with catalogue number U.1466607. The plant is currently considered extinct as numerous attempts to find it in the type locality failed.
Himantoglossum robertianum is a species of flowering plant in the orchid family (Orchidaceae) native to the Mediterranean Basin.
Media related to Grammatophyllum speciosum at Wikimedia Commons