Epipogium roseum(D.Don) Lindl.

Ghost orchid

WFO wfo-0000952351 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Epipogium roseum, photographed by 劉哲瑋
fig. a 劉哲瑋, CC0 1.0 / 2022-05-08 / obs. 196199096
Epipogium roseum, photographed by fagushayata
fig. b fagushayata, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 35620704
Epipogium roseum, photographed by 葉子
fig. c 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 71606656
Epipogium roseum, photographed by Yoshihiro Tokue
fig. d Yoshihiro Tokue, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 26552377
Epipogium roseum, photographed by Seema Merchant
fig. e Seema Merchant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199295794
Epipogium roseum, photographed by Hopeland
fig. f Hopeland, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 179464800
Epipogium roseum, photographed by T R Shankar Raman
fig. g T R Shankar Raman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 127383270
Epipogium roseum, photographed by T R Shankar Raman
fig. h T R Shankar Raman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 127383309

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 48 botanical countries

Regions where Epipogium roseum is native: Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, DR Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Is., Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Tibet, Assam, Borneo, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Pakistan, Philippines, Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, New South Wales, Queensland, Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu AngolaCameroonCentral African RepublicCongoDR CongoGhanaGuineaGulf of Guinea Is.KenyaLiberiaMalawiNigeriaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaChina South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanJapanTaiwanTibetAssamBorneoEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPakistanPhilippinesSolomon Is.Sri LankaSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamWest HimalayaNew South WalesQueenslandFijiNew Caledonia Nansei-shotoVanuatu
Native distribution of Epipogium roseum, 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
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Borneo BOR
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Pakistan PAK
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
Angola ANG AFRICA
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Kenya KEN
Liberia LBR
Malawi MLW
Nigeria NGA
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Japan JAP
Nansei-shoto NNS
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Fiji FIJ PACIFIC
New Caledonia NWC
Vanuatu VAN
New South Wales NSW AUSTRALASIA
Queensland QLD

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.

Flowering 37 in flower of 41 examined

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Epipogium roseum observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 37 of 41 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 10 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 397 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -0.1 °C 10.1 °C 16.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.2 °C 27.8 °C 31.0 °C
Annual rainfall 1,053 mm 2,888 mm 4,612 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 37 mm 163 mm 763 mm

It is found where winters bring light frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 397 research-grade observations of Epipogium roseum 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. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 23 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.

  • Ceratopsis rosea (D.Don) Lindl.
  • Epipogium africanus Schltr.
  • Epipogium dentilabellum Ohtani & S.Suzuki
  • Epipogium guilfoylii F.Muell.
  • Epipogium indicum H.J.Chowdhery, G.D.Pal & G.S.Giri
  • Epipogium kassnerianum Kraenzl.
  • Epipogium kusukusense (Hayata) Schltr.
  • Epipogium makinoanum Schltr.
  • Epipogium nutans (Blume) Rchb.f.
  • Epipogium nutans var. celebicus Schltr.
  • Epipogium poneranthum Fukuy.
  • Epipogium rolfei (Hayata) Schltr.
  • Epipogium sessanum S.N.Hegde & A.N.Rao
  • Epipogium sinicum C.L.Tso
  • Epipogium tuberosum Duthie
  • Galera kusukusensis Hayata
  • Galera nutans Blume
  • Galera rolfei Hayata
  • Galera rosea (D.Don) Blume
  • Gastrodia schinziana Kraenzl.
  • Limodorum roseum D.Don
  • Podanthera pallida Wight
  • Stereosandra schinziana (Kraenzl.) Garay

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.