Species library › Bulbophyllum › Bulbophyllum maxillare
Orchids Well documented

Bulbophyllum maxillare

Red horntail orchid

A small, creeping, warm-growing Bulbophyllum of section Cirrhopetalum with tapered pseudobulbs 15–40 mm long, single thin leaves and dark red flowers, in which the large lateral sepals dominate the flower. It ranges from the Nicobar Islands through Malesia to New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Cape York, growing on the lower branches and trunks of lowland rainforest trees. Grow it warm, shaded and humid, mounted or in a shallow basket, with moving air and no real dry rest.

Bulbophyllum maxillare
Photo: Airborne Pilot, CC BY-SA 2.0, 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

Wikipedia records it as an epiphyte on the lower branches and trunks of rainforest trees in humid tropical forest. A Solomon Islands specimen describes an epiphytic herb 15 cm high at 10–100 m. Records from Singapore come from secondary forest in nature parks. Its position low on trunks inside the forest means shaded, humid, still air rather than the exposed canopy.

Measured records run 0–900 m, with a median of 374 m (13 records). It is a lowland to foothill rainforest species.

India: Nicobar IslandsMalay Peninsula and SingaporeSumatra, Java and BorneoPhilippines and SulawesiNew Guinea (Papua New Guinea and Indonesian Papua)Solomon IslandsAustralia: Cape York Peninsula and Torres Strait (Queensland)

🔒 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.