Bulbophyllum lepidum(Blume) J.J.Sm.

WFO wfo-0000531260 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Bulbophyllum lepidum, photographed by luluchouette
fig. a luluchouette, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-12-21 / obs. 175052792
Bulbophyllum lepidum, photographed by Samuel Lee
fig. b Samuel Lee, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155305191
Bulbophyllum lepidum, photographed by Gerard Chartier
fig. c Gerard Chartier, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 102731899
Bulbophyllum lepidum, photographed by Cheongweei Gan
fig. d Cheongweei Gan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 154140067
Bulbophyllum lepidum, photographed by Gerard Chartier
fig. e Gerard Chartier, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 102167348
Bulbophyllum lepidum, photographed by Gerard Chartier
fig. f Gerard Chartier, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 102167600
Bulbophyllum lepidum, photographed by Gerard Chartier
fig. g Gerard Chartier, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 102167363
Bulbophyllum lepidum, photographed by Oleg Kosterin
fig. h Oleg Kosterin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 70171589

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 12 botanical countries

Regions where Bulbophyllum lepidum is native: Hainan, Andaman Is., Borneo, Cambodia, Jawa, Laos, Malaya, Myanmar, Philippines, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam HainanBorneoCambodiaJawaLaosMalayaMyanmarPhilippinesSumateraThailandVietnam Andaman Is.
Native distribution of Bulbophyllum lepidum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Malaya MLY
Myanmar MYA
Philippines PHI
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Hainan CHH ASIA-TEMPERATE

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 30 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 14.4 °C 21.9 °C 24.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 29.0 °C 31.0 °C 32.0 °C
Annual rainfall 2,148 mm 3,209 mm 4,224 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 32 mm 134 mm 574 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 30 research-grade observations of Bulbophyllum lepidum that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 19 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Bulbophyllum flabellum-veneris (J.Koenig) Aver.
  • Bulbophyllum gamosepalum (Griff.) J.J.Sm.
  • Bulbophyllum griffithianum C.S.P.Parish & Rchb.f.
  • Bulbophyllum lepidum var. insigne J.J.Sm.
  • Bulbophyllum rolfeanum (Rolfe ex Downie) Seidenf. & Smitinand
  • Bulbophyllum umbellatum J.J.Sm.
  • Bulbophyllum viscidum J.J.Sm.
  • Cirrhopetalum ciliatum Klinge
  • Cirrhopetalum flabellum-veneris (J.Koenig) Seidenf. & Ormerod
  • Cirrhopetalum gagnepainii Guillaumin
  • Cirrhopetalum gamosepalum Griff.
  • Cirrhopetalum gamosepalum var. angustum Ridl.
  • Cirrhopetalum lepidum (Blume) Schltr.
  • Cirrhopetalum siamense Rolfe ex Downie
  • Cirrhopetalum stramineum var. purpureum Gagnep.
  • Cirrhopetalum viscidum (J.J.Sm.) Garay, Hamer & Siegerist
  • Ephippium lepidum Blume
  • Epidendrum flabellum-veneris J.Koenig
  • Phyllorkis gamosepala (Griff.) Kuntze

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.