Phalaenopsis maculata
A small moth orchid from Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia with waxy, cupped, off-white flowers barred reddish brown. In the wild it grows on trees and on rocks, often ultrabasic (serpentinite) or limestone boulders in shaded, humid ravines and riverine forest. It has a reputation as difficult, but nursery-raised plants grow far better than wild-collected ones.
Where it grows wild
An epiphyte and lithophyte of humid, shaded places: specimen labels record it on boulders in cave and boulder forest, in a deep canyon with cliffs and waterfalls on serpentinite rock near a river, low on trees near a stream in lowland dipterocarp forest, in primary riverine forest and in submontane mossy forest. Its association with ultrabasic and limestone rock suggests it likes a mineral-rich, non-acidic root zone.
Literature gives 0-1000 m. Few wild records carry an elevation; labels range from low-altitude cave boulders to submontane mossy forest.
🔒 Growing it like that
The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
Grow Phalaenopsis maculata? Add it to a free garden and its full profile opens. Pro opens all 38,374 profiles in the library, plants and fungi.
More Phalaenopsis
Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app.