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Species library › Bulbophyllum › Bulbophyllum japonicum
Orchids Partly documented

Bulbophyllum japonicum

Bulbophyllum japonicum is a miniature creeping orchid from southern Japan, Taiwan and southeast China. It has tiny pseudobulbs, one leaf each, and small umbels of purple-red flowers. It grows on mossy tree trunks and boulders in humid, shaded forest, and suits a cool-to-intermediate terrarium or a shady, humid mount.

Bulbophyllum japonicum
Photo: Kuo-Chu Yueh, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day IntermediateTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Humid airBand in Plantistry
Light ShadeDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
Expects a seasonal restGrows on trees (epiphyte)

Where it grows wild

It grows as a creeping epiphyte or lithophyte on tree trunks and mossy boulders in humid broadleaf forest. Field notes record it on trunks and on mossy rocks in deep, narrow forested ravines, where the air is constantly moist.

Taiwanese specimens with an elevation span about 400–1,800 m, most at 650–1,200 m. In southern Japan (Kochi, Hyogo, Kagoshima) it reaches lower, into warm-temperate lowland forest.

Japan: southern Honshu, Shikoku, KyushuTaiwanSoutheast China, including Guangxi

🔒 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

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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 2.0 licence, unmodified.