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Epiblema grandiflorum
Babe-in-a-cradle is a small terrestrial orchid from the swamps of south-west Western Australia, known for its purple flowers and ribbon-like petal appendages. It is a wild, tuberous species that is hard to keep in cultivation and needs wet, peaty conditions that receive a dry season.
Epiblema grandiflorum, commonly known as babe-in-a-cradle, is the only species in the flowering plant genus Epiblema in the orchid family, Orchidaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a colony-forming orchid which grows in peaty swamps near the coast. Its flowers are purple with ribbon-like strands attached to its labellum and a broad, petal-like column.
Babe-in-a-cradle grows in wet, peaty swamps, often initially underwater but by the time the flowers appear, the water has usually receded. It is found in coastal areas between Gingin north of Perth and Esperance in the Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain and Warren biogeographic regions.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Epiblema grandiflorum 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.
