Bulbophyllum roxburghii

Let us introduce the delightful miniature Bulbophyllum roxburghii. As you can see the flowers have many similarities with Bulbophyllum longiflorum but the tiny flowers are just 2cm long and the flower head is 2.5cm across - the plant is in a 6cm pot!

Bulbophyllum roxburghii is from low altitude at the the lower end of himalayan valleys from Sikkim across to Assam. This is habitat we know well from our visits to Sikkim, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in North East India. While the tops of the river valleys are snowy pine forest and meadow, the ends of the valleys are near to sea level and have a hot monsoon climate. In the summer conditions are hot and wet while winters are warm and dry. The forest here is semi-deciduous and many orchids are exposed to bright light.

Bulbophyllum roxburghii copes with this climate by growing in shady spots and having hard leathery leaves and relatively large pseudobulbs for a miniature orchid.

We grow the species indoors in our IKEA cases with a winter minimum of 17C and replicating the native climate we keep plants wet in the summer and much druer in the winter. Flowers emerge in June just before the new growth.