Phaius tankervilleae (Banks ex L'Hér.) Blume
Description: This large, terrestrial species is a hot to warm growing , This magnificent species is a very widespread terrestrial, being found along the eastern seaboard of Australia from well into NSW right up the East coast of Queensland and on through PNG, Indonesia, Malaysia, Indo-China, Thailand, Cambodia and on into Northern India. It has also become naturalised on some of the islands of the West Indies, and also found in Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Xizang, Yunnan provinces of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Pacific Islands, at elevations up to 1300 meters in lower montane woods and in grasslands in moist depressions with black soil with ovoid or conical, green pseudobulbs enveloped basally by several leaf bearing sheaths with elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, plicate, thin-textured, petiolate leaves, after blooming and the fall of the dead flowers, can be cut off and placed on sand in a long, plastic, plant flat and partially covered, put in a deep shaded, humid, well watered area and in 2 to 3 months, plantlets will begin to grow from the old floral bracts. After 6 months they can be transplanted into a pot. This species has become an invasive species in some countries such as Jamaica and Hawaii. In Papua the smoked flowers are eaten as a contraceptive.
Photorights: Cedric Jancloes
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