Phalaenopsis pulcherrima(Lindl.) J.J.Sm.

WFO wfo-0000268291 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 times, 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.

Phalaenopsis pulcherrima, photographed by Cheongweei Gan
fig. a Cheongweei Gan, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2019-10-26 / obs. 55532432
Phalaenopsis pulcherrima, photographed by Jay Pruett
fig. b Jay Pruett, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 183322885
Phalaenopsis pulcherrima, photographed by Gerard Chartier
fig. c Gerard Chartier, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 105754351
Phalaenopsis pulcherrima, photographed by Gerard Chartier
fig. d Gerard Chartier, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 105754321
Phalaenopsis pulcherrima, photographed by Oleg Kosterin
fig. e Oleg Kosterin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 68768092
Phalaenopsis pulcherrima, photographed by Oleg Kosterin
fig. f Oleg Kosterin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 60368150
Phalaenopsis pulcherrima, photographed by Oleg Kosterin
fig. g Oleg Kosterin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 60372825
Phalaenopsis pulcherrima, photographed by Oleg Kosterin
fig. h Oleg Kosterin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 60368128

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 10 botanical countries

Regions where Phalaenopsis pulcherrima is native: Hainan, Assam, Borneo, Cambodia, Laos, Malaya, Myanmar, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam HainanAssamBorneoCambodiaLaosMalayaMyanmarSumateraThailandVietnam
Native distribution of Phalaenopsis pulcherrima, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
Laos LAO
Malaya MLY
Myanmar MYA
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 72 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 10.7 °C 16.6 °C 24.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.1 °C 31.0 °C 34.5 °C
Annual rainfall 1,182 mm 1,618 mm 4,013 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 20 mm 34 mm 299 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 72 research-grade observations of Phalaenopsis pulcherrima 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 33 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.

  • Doritis buyssoniana (Rchb.f.) J.M.H.Shaw
  • Doritis pulcherrima Lindl.
  • Doritis pulcherrima f. alba O.Gruss & Roeth
  • Doritis pulcherrima f. albiflora (Rchb.f.) Roeth & O.Gruss
  • Doritis pulcherrima f. apiculata Aver.
  • Doritis pulcherrima f. caerulea (Fowlie) O.Gruss & Roeth
  • Doritis pulcherrima f. cinnabarina Telepova
  • Doritis pulcherrima f. coerulea (Fowlie) O.Gruss & Roeth
  • Doritis pulcherrima f. nivea Aver.
  • Doritis pulcherrima f. purpurea Aver.
  • Doritis pulcherrima var. apiculata Aver.
  • Doritis pulcherrima var. buyssoniana (Rchb.f.) Aver.
  • Doritis pulcherrima var. caerulea Fowlie
  • Doritis pulcherrima var. coerulea Fowlie
  • Doritis pulcherrima var. marmorata O.Gruss
  • Doritis pulcherrima var. regnieriana (Rchb.f.) Aver.
  • Doritis regnieriana (Rchb.f.) Holttum
  • Phalaenopsis antennifera Rchb.f.
  • Phalaenopsis buyssoniana Rchb.f.
  • Phalaenopsis esmeralda Rchb.f.
  • Phalaenopsis esmeralda f. regneriana (Rchb.f.) J.J.Sm.
  • Phalaenopsis esmeralda var. albiflora Rchb.f.
  • Phalaenopsis esmeralda var. candidula Rolfe
  • Phalaenopsis esmeralda var. punctulata Cogn.

and 9 more.

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.