Apostasia wallichii is a small, terrestrial, grass-like orchid from wet tropical forest and rainforest, grown mainly by specialist collectors rather than as a common houseplant. The key to growing it is constant humidity, shade and steadily moist, well-drained conditions.
Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Grass, Orchid
Light
Part shade, Shade
Water
Keep the medium consistently moist but never waterlogged; water more often in the growing season.
Soil
Fine, free-draining, humus-rich mix such as bark, sphagnum moss and perlite.
Temperature
18–30 °C; protect below 15 °C
How easy
Hard
Native range
China (SW. Yunnan) to Trop. Asia and N. Australia
Climate
wet tropical
About
Apostasia wallichii, commonly known as the yellow grass orchid, is a species of orchid that is native to India, Japan, China, Southeast Asia, New Guinea and northern Australia. It has many arching, dark green, grass-like leaves and up to forty small, star-like yellow flowers arranged on a branched flowering stem. It mainly grows in wet forest and rainforest.
Where it grows
The yellow grass orchid grows in tropical forest and rainforest, sometimes near streams at altitudes of up to 1,000 m (3,000 ft). It is found in Hainan, south-west Yunnan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, southern Japan, Nepal, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, New Guinea and Queensland where if occurs between Bamaga and Ingham.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Apostasia wallichii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.