Bulbophyllum rhombifolium (Carr) Masam. 1942 SECTION Biflorae Garay, Hamer, & Siegrist 1994

Photo by © Lourens Grobler

Common Name The Diamond-Shaped Leaf Bulbophyllum

Flower Size 4" [10 cm] length

Found in Malaysia and Borneo at elevations under 300 meters as a smaller hot growing epiphyte with clustered, four sided, rugose psuedobulbs carrying a single, apical leaf that gives rise to an erect, basal, 3.6" [9cm] long, slender inflorescence that has 2 apical flowers held just below the leaves.

A hot growing species that requires a pot with a fast draining medium, partial shade, ample water and good air circulation.

Newer references put this species as a synonym of B hymenochilum but I feel that they should be separate. The petals in this species are blunt and thickened apically while in B hymenochilum they are gradually tapering to an acute apex as well as the dorsal sepal is acuminate in this species and is not in B hymenochilum and the lateral sepals are incurved and in B hymenochilum they are wide spread and apically are split in two.

Synonyms*Cirrhopetalum rhombifolium Carr 1935

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Notes on Cirrhopetalum Seidenfadden 1973 drawing good; A Checklist of the Orchids of Borneo Wood & Cribb 1994 as B hymenochilum; Bulbophyllum and Their Allies Seigerist 2001; Bulbophyllum of Borneo J J Verm, P O'Byrne and Lamb 2015 as synonym of B hymenochilum

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