Bulbophyllum elisae
Bulbophyllum elisae, commonly known as pineapple orchid, is a species of epiphytic or lithophytic orchid that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has crowded, wrinkled, pale green or yellowish clump-forming pseudobulbs, stiff, pale green to yellowish leaves and between three and twelve pale green to dark green flowers with a dark red to purple labellum. It usually grows in the tops of rainforest trees, on cliff faces or boulders.
Description
Bulbophyllum elisae is an epiphytic or lithophytic herb with crowded, wrinkled and grooved, pale green or yellowish pseudobulbs long and wide. The leaves are narrow oblong to lance-shaped, thin, leathery, flat, long and wide. Between three and twelve pale green to dark green flowers long and wide are arranged on one side of a thin flowering stem long. The dorsal sepal is egg-shaped, long and about wide, but the lateral sepals are much longer at long and wide. The petals are about long and wide. The labellum is purple, fleshy, about long and wide. Flowering occurs between May and November.
Pineapple orchid was first formally described in 1868 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name Cirrhopetalum elisae and published the description in the Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae from a specimen collected near Tenterfield. In 1873, George Bentham changed the name to Bulbophyllum elisae. The specific epithet honours Eliza Kern.
Distribution and habitat
Bulbophyllum elisae grows on the highest branches of rainforest trees, sometimes on cliff faces and boulders. It occurs between the Bunya Mountains in Queensland and the Blue Mountains in New South Wales.