Bulbophyllum wightii Rchb.f. 1861 SECTION Cirrhopetaloides Garay, Hamer & Siegerist 1994
Photo by © Suranjan Fernando and An Annotated Checklist of the Orchids of Sri Lanka Website
Drawing Drawing by © M.D.Dassanayake & F.R.Fosberg
Common Name Wight's Bulbophyllum [English Surgeon and Botanist 1800's]
Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]
Found in Sri Lanka in wet tropical evergreen montane forests at elevations over 700 to 1850 meters as a medium sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with 2.6” [6.5 cm] between each ovoid, oblong to fusiform, green, smooth in youth, ribbed with age pseudobulb enveloped by brown papery sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, linear-oblong, dark green, thick, coricaoeus, emarginate, midrib grooved, narrowing below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter and spring on a basal, erect then arcuate, 5.2" [13 cm] long, decurved, 2 to 8 flowered inflorescence holding the flowers in an apical umbel.
ALERT!!!!!!!!! There is a lot of confusion out there about this species. See also B pintungense as Garay and most other references feel that B pintungense is a separate species and it is, occuring only in Taiwan. The Sri Lankan endemic, B wightii is pictured above. I am absolutely sure of this and all photos on the net of B wightii are actually B pingtungense including the purple lipped one. The photo of the orchid above is from Sri Lanka and the postage stamp and drawing are both from Sri Lanka. SO this is correct.
Synonyms Cirrhopetalum grandiflorum Wight 1852; Phyllorchis wightii (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Notes on Cirrhopetalum Seidenfaden 1973 drawing fide; A Revised Handbook to the Flora of Ceylon Dassanayake & Fosberg 1981 drawing fide; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; Bulbophyllum and Their Allies Seigerist 2001 as Cirrhopetalum grandiflorum; Bulbophyllum and Their Allies Seigerist 2001 as Cirrhopetalum wightii;
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
