Bulbophyllum moniliforme

Bulbophyllum moniliforme
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocots
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Orchidaceae
Subfamily:	Epidendroideae
Genus:	Bulbophyllum
Species:	Bulbophyllum moniliforme

Common Name The Necklace-Like Bulbophyllum

Flower Size 3/16" [1 mm]

Found in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Myanmar and Thailand as a mini-miniature sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte or occasional lithophyte at elevations around 20 to 800 meters with very small, wrinkled, round, glossy green pseudobulbs in clusters with a single, apical, tiny, deciduous, erect, fleshy, oblong-elliptic, acute, apiculate, sessile base leaf that blooms in the fall and winter after leaf-fall on an erect to suberect, basal, laterally, 3/4" [2 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence holding the flowers above the leaf.

One of the smallest sized orchids of the Bulbophyllum.

It has come to my attention that for many years I have had this species and B minutissima confused and have said they are synomonous, nothing could be farther from the truth as the photos supplied attest. Kew along with many other major orchid references have these 2 as the same species please take note that they are indeed separate. One major difference other than the flower is the fact that this one blooms after the leaf has fallen, B minutissima always keeps its leaf when blooming.

Synonyms Dendrobium nummulifolium R.King 1879; Phyllorchis moniliformis (Parish & Rchb. f.) Kuntze 1891

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list as Synonym of B minutissima not!, IPNI ; The Orchids of Burma Grant 1895/95; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1959 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 35 No 4 1966; Orchid Genera in Thailand Vol VIII Bulbophyllum Thou. Seidenfaden 1979 drawing good; Die Orchideen Band 3 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas # 40 Bulbophyllinae 1983 drawing; Orchids Of India II Biodiversity & Status of Bulbophyllum Thou Augustine & Kumar 2001; A Field Guide to the Wild Orchids of Thailand Vaddhanaphuti 2001 photo fide; Bulbophyllum and Their Allies Siegerist 2001; A field Guide to the Wild Orchids of Thailand Vaddhanaphuti 2005 photo fide; Native Orchids of Australia Jones 2006 as Oncophyllum minutissimum; The Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007 drawing ok; Bulbophyllum: the incomplete Guide From A to why? Bill Thoms 2009 photo fide; A Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species Gerritsen and Parsons 2013 photo fide

CITIES category : Appendix II

References 

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