rhamphotheca:

sugaratoms: Newly Discovered Orchid

ON A REMOTE ISLAND in Papua New Guinea, scientists have uncovered the world’s only known orchid to produce flowers exclusively at night that die by the next morning.

Of more than 25,000 species in the orchid, only a handful flower in the evening. The new orchid, dubbed Bulbophyllum nocturnum, is the first known one whose flowers shrivel and fall off before dawn breaks.

Dendrobium chrysopterum - discovered bybotanist Andre Schuiteman in 1990 in PNG and described by him and Ed de Vogel. Found only in the forests of Eastern New Guinea.

Photo Credit: Andre Schuiteman