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Pelatantheria insectifera is a small epiphytic orchid from the Himalaya to Indo-China, growing on trees or limestone rocks with long stems and small pink flowers. It is a wild species rarely grown in cultivation, so care guidance is general and based on related epiphytic orchids.
Pelatantheria insectifera is a species of orchid occurring in Thailand, Laos, India. The species is a long-stemmed (30 to 60 cm) epiphytic herb. The small flowers have a relatively large, fleshy, bright pink labellum. The specific epithet "insectifera", meaning "insect bearing", refers to the flowers, which are indicated to resemble an insect. Thus, attraction of pollinators by means of sexual deception is implied, but to date no pollinator has been published. The flowers are produced from September to October on subsessile racemes, which are shorter than the leaves. The plants are almost entirely self-incompatible, but a small percentage of self-pollination events may be successful. After pollination the colour of the labellum changes from pink to red and the sepals and petals begin to close.
This species if found in dry or moist, evergreen or deciduous, open or dense forests on limestone. It may grow epiphytically or lithophytically at elevations of 600 to 1100 m a.s.l. It is often found in association with other epiphytic orchids, such as Dendrobium, Eria and Pholidota.
Pelatantheria bicuspidata · Pelatantheria cristata · Pelatantheria ctenoglossum · Pelatantheria eakroensis · Pelatantheria rivesii · Centipede’s Foot Orchid · Pelatantheria woonchengii · Pelatantheria
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pelatantheria insectifera 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.
