Sign in Start free
Species library › Bulbophyllum › Bulbophyllum arfakianum
Orchids Partly documented

Bulbophyllum arfakianum

A slow-growing New Guinea epiphyte in section Hyalosema, with single-leafed ovoid pseudobulbs spaced about 2.5 cm apart on a creeping rhizome and single large flowers, around 5 cm, carried on stems about 14 cm long, the petals marked maroon. It comes from warm, wet lowland and foothill rainforest and wants steady heat, high humidity and water all year.

Bulbophyllum arfakianum
Photo: Orchi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day Warm-growingTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Humid airBand in Plantistry
Light Dappled lightDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
No rest periodGrows on trees (epiphyte)

Where it grows wild

Epiphyte in lowland to foothill rainforest. Its creeping rhizome climbs slowly, so it grows on branches and trunks rather than forming a tight clump.

Wikipedia gives 50 to 400 m; one GBIF record from the Sara River in Morobe Province is at 550 m. It is a warm-growing lowland orchid.

New Guinea

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

Grow Bulbophyllum arfakianum? Add it to a free garden and its full profile opens. Pro opens all 38,374 profiles in the library, plants and fungi.

Start free Sign in

More Bulbophyllum

Bulbophyllum longiflorum Bulbophyllum gracillimum Bulbophyllum argyropus Bulbophyllum baileyi Bulbophyllum fenestratum Bulbophyllum macphersonii Bulbophyllum maxillare Bulbophyllum minutissimum Bulbophyllum raulersoniae Bulbophyllum schillerianum Bulbophyllum shepherdii Bulbophyllum teretifolium All 2219 →

Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 3.0 licence, unmodified.