An orchid that blooms exclusively at night has been discovered on New Britain, an island near Papua New Guinea.
Bulbophyllum nocturnum was discovered by Ed de Vogel, a Dutch botanist during a field trip into lowland forest. The findings have recently been published in the
Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society by him and his co-author, Andre Schuiteman, an orchid expert from the RGB, Kew.
The flowers of
Bulbophyllum nocturnum open after dusk and wither before sunrise but this was only discovered once the plant was being studied in the Netherlands. The genus
Bulbophyllum is the largest in the orchid family with over 1,800 extraordinary species.
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Bulbophyllum nocturnum
(Photo by Andre Schuiteman) |
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