Phaius amboinensisBlume

Arnhem Land swamp orchid

WFO wfo-0000267964 Accepted WFO 2026-06 3 photographs CC0

Plate 1 figs. a–c · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Phaius amboinensis, photographed by Peter de Lange
fig. a Peter de Lange, CC0 1.0 / 2010-07-11 / obs. 11623175
Phaius amboinensis, photographed by Peter de Lange
fig. b Peter de Lange, CC0 1.0 / obs. 11623168
Phaius amboinensis, photographed by Peter de Lange
fig. c Peter de Lange, CC0 1.0 / obs. 11623174

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 16 botanical countries

Regions where Phaius amboinensis is native: Bismarck Archipelago, Jawa, Maluku, New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Is., Sulawesi, Northern Territory, Caroline Is., Cook Is., Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is. Bismarck ArchipelagoJawaMalukuNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.SulawesiNorthern TerritoryFijiNew Caledonia Caroline Is.Cook Is.SamoaTongaVanuatuWallis-Futuna Is.
Native distribution of Phaius amboinensis, 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
Caroline Is. CRL PACIFIC
Cook Is. COO
Fiji FIJ
New Caledonia NWC
Samoa SAM
Tonga TON
Vanuatu VAN
Wallis-Futuna Is. WAL
Bismarck Archipelago BIS ASIA-TROPICAL
Jawa JAW
Maluku MOL
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sulawesi SUL
Northern Territory NTA AUSTRALASIA

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.

Also published as 12 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.

  • Bletia amboinensis Zipp. ex Blume
  • Calanthe amboinensis (Blume) M.W.Chase, Christenh. & Schuit.
  • Epidendrum terrestre L.
  • Epidendrum tuberosum L.
  • Eulophia terrestris (L.) M.W.Chase, Kumar & Schuit.
  • Geodorum terrestre (L.) Garay
  • Phaius amboinensis var. papuanus (Schltr.) Schltr.
  • Phaius graeffei Rchb.f.
  • Phaius neocaledonicus Rendle
  • Phaius papuanus Schltr.
  • Phaius terrestris (L.) Ormerod
  • Phaius zollingeri Rchb.f.

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.