Liparis ellipticaWight

WFO wfo-0000228110 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Liparis elliptica, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. a Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-01-26 / obs. 177492463
Liparis elliptica, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. b Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 177118323
Liparis elliptica, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. c Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 123848881
Liparis elliptica, photographed by 國立臺灣博物館
fig. d 國立臺灣博物館, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 62009358
Liparis elliptica, photographed by 葉子
fig. e 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 51182233
Liparis elliptica, photographed by fagushayata
fig. f fagushayata, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 32002001
Liparis elliptica, photographed by fagushayata
fig. g fagushayata, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 30357451
Liparis elliptica, photographed by fagushayata
fig. h fagushayata, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 30475822

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
1031989
Filed as
Liparis elliptica (Rchb.f.) Rchb.f.
Det. by
E. A. Christenson 1992-12-01
Collected
W. R. Anderson 1972-02-20
Origin
BR
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 20 botanical countries

Regions where Liparis elliptica is native: China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Tibet, Assam, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Fiji, New Caledonia China South-CentralChina SoutheastJapanTaiwanTibetAssamEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MyanmarNepalPhilippinesSri LankaThailandVietnamFijiNew Caledonia Nansei-shoto
Native distribution of Liparis elliptica, 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
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
Philippines PHI
Sri Lanka SRL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Japan JAP
Nansei-shoto NNS
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Fiji FIJ PACIFIC
New Caledonia NWC

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 373 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 4.4 °C 9.8 °C 13.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.2 °C 27.6 °C 30.2 °C
Annual rainfall 2,883 mm 4,211 mm 4,947 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 113 mm 538 mm 843 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 373 research-grade observations of Liparis elliptica 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 11 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.

  • Cestichis elliptica (Wight) M.A.Clem. & D.L.Jones
  • Cestichis lyonii Ames
  • Cestichis platybulba (Hayata) Kudô
  • Leptorkis elliptica (Wight) Kuntze
  • Liparis bicornuta Schltr.
  • Liparis concava Schltr.
  • Liparis hookeri Ridl.
  • Liparis lyonii (Ames) Ames
  • Liparis platybolba Hayata
  • Liparis wightii Rchb.f.
  • Stichorkis elliptica (Wight) Marg., Szlach. & Kulak

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.