Origin and Habitat: Eastern and southeastern regions of Asia: Philippines, Borneo, North-west Australia (Queensland), Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia)
Habitat: It's an epiphyte growing high on tree trunks, branches and rocks in lowland dense tropical rain forest or sometimes, close to the ocean.
Altitude: Up to 600 meters.
Ecology: It will thrive in temperatures from 20° C at night to 30° C during the day. Low night temperatures in the fall and winter months induce blooming which often takes place over several months during the spring, and early summer as the flowers are very long-lasting.
Synonyms:
See all synonyms of Phalaenopsis amabilis
Common Names include:
ENGLISH: Moon Orchid, White Moon Orchid, Moth orchid
AZERBAIJAN ( Azərbaycanca): Ay səhləbi, Ay orxideyası
CHINESE (中文): 阿媽, 南洋白花蝴蝶蘭, 蝶蘭, 蝴蝶蘭
DUTCH (Nederlands): Maanorchidee
INDONESIAN (Bahasa Indonesia): Anggrek bulan, Anggrek boelan
JAVANESE (Basa Jawa): Anggrèk bulan
PERSIAN (فارسی): ارکیده ماه
RUSSIAN (Русский): Фалено́псис прия́тный, Фаленопсис прелестный
SPANISH (Español): Orquídea luna
UKRAINIAN (Українська): Фаленопсис приємний, Фаленопсис чарівний
Description: Phalaenopsis amabilis is an epiphytic orchid that produces beautiful white bloom with a crystalline texture and perhaps it is one of the most cultivated orchids as indoor plants, it is also quite attractive even when not in flower.
Stem: Short often pendulous and usually unbranched. The only times it would be branched is when the apical meristem had been damaged or sometime in very old specimens.
Roots: Thick fleshy, adventitious aerial roots from the basal (lower) part of the stem.
Leaves: 3-5 (usually 4) in two ranks, persistent, 15 to 50 cm long and up 10 cm wide, thick and leathery oblong to elliptic at the base and minutely obtuse at the tip or apex green above and beneath.
Inflorescence: Slender, loose racemes from the base of the leaves with zigzag axis, few to many flowered, up to 80 cm long, (or more) usually simple or occasionally with limited branching. It's fairly typical for the species to produce two spikes at the same time when mature with blooms neatly arranged on either side of the spike.
Pseudobulbs: Absent.
Flower: Showy, conspicuous, fragrant, 6-10 cm in diameter and more, pure white, membranous. Sepals 3-4 cm long, almost equal, free, spreading, white or pinkish on the back, the dorsal sepal is elliptic and blunt, whereas lateral sepals are ovate and pointed. Petals, larger, up to 4,5 cm long, of the same colour of the sepals more or less circular, narrow at the base. Lip, (the unpaired petals of an orchid) relatively small, up to 2,3 cm long, three-lobed, the two side lobes oblanceolate and erect and the middle lobe white stripped or spotted in a variety of yellow and red depending on the individual plant with two threadlike appendages with yellow tips on the middle lobe, Callus more or less square yellow spotted with red. Pollinia 2, more or less spherical.
Blooming season: Usually from late autumn to early spring (also year round) lasting for months. Each individual flower lasts several weeks or until pollinated.
Remarks:This species and several of its varieties are used to breed large white hybrid moth orchids. The hybrids became so popular that it may now be difficult to find true specimens of this species and the white hybrid Phalaenopsis of today are almost entirely made of selected forms of this species or its very close allies.
Subspecies, varieties, forms and cultivars of plants belonging to the Phalaenopsis amabilis group
Bibliography:
Major references
1. Christenson, Eric A. Phalaenopsis A Monograph. New York: Timber P, Incorporated, 2001.
2. Reinikka, Merle A. History of the Orchid. Portland, Or: Timber P, 1995.
2. Van Der Pijl, L., and Calaway H. Dodson. Orchid Flowers/ Their Pollination and Evolution. Harris, NY: C. H. Dodson, 1966.
3. Dressler, Robert L. Phylogeny and classification of the orchid family. Portland, OR: Dioscorides P, 1993.
4. Freed, Hugo. Orchids and Serendipity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970.
5. Ortho Complete Guide to Orchids - Meredith Books, pag. 181, 18/gen/2005
6. Gustav Schoser. Orchid Growing Basics. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 1993 pag 49.
7. Sweet, H.R. The genus Phalaenopsis 1980
8. European Garden Flora: A Manual for the Identification of Plants Cultivated in Europe, Both Out-of-Doors and under Glass - Cambridge University Press, 15/mar/1984
9. Rodica Bercu, A. Bavaru, Livia Broască. ANATOMICAL ASPECTS OF PHALAENOPSIS AMABILIS (L.) BLUMEAnnals of RSCB Vol. XVI, Issue 2/2011
10. Bechtel, H., Cribb, P. & Launert, E. (1992). The Manual of Cultivated Orchid Species. 3rd edition. Blandford Press, Poole.
11. Briggs, J. D. & Leigh, J. H. (1996). Rare or Threatened Australian Plants. 4th edition. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood.
12. Brummitt, R. K. & Powell, C. E. (1996). Authors of Plant Names. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
13. Mabberley, D. J. (2008). Mabberley’s Plant-book: a Portable Dictionary of Plants, their Classification and Uses. 3rd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
14. Radcliffe-Smith, A. (1998). Three-language List of Botanical Name Components. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
15. World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (2010). Phalaenopsis amabilis. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet at: http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=151132
Cultivation and Propagation: It is a slow growing orchid of remarkable ornamental value for the very long lasting white inflorescences. As it is native to rainforests, cool evening temperatures with warm days and high humidity describes its best growing conditions, however it grows very well as a home plant too, where it is able to furnish a long lasting note of colour even in the dark corners.
Growing substrate: This orchid is an epiphyte that in the wild typically grows soil-less, but as a houseplant is typically grown in containers filled with moss, fir bark, chunks of hardwood charcoal or coarse crushed tree fern fibre encased in a container or wired to the surfaces of boulders, rough bark, rock walls, or tree branches. Living among the branches of the rainforests trees orchids need very little root space so do not place in too large a pot. Root rot can be a problem if the soil is too moist. Continue to depot annually in the spring until the orchid fills a 10-15 cm pot. Small pots can induce blooms in mature plants.
Exposition: Grow Phalaenopsis in bright filtered light both indoors and out. In the garden it prefers partially shaded areas and grow best where they'll get morning sun, or shifting shade throughout the day, but will not tolerate direct mid-day sun in hot summer climates. Shading is highly recommended in spring and early summer to prevent leaves scorch. In apartment, it is to be preferably placed in a luminous position, but it adapts also to situations of scarce luminosity.
Watering: Water about once a week. Keep plants fairly moist but not wet. They lack pseudobulbs and therefore they should not be allowed to dry out and need constant moisture from rain or sprinkler. In dry and hot climate, humidity can be increased with nebulisations utilizing water at room temperature and not calcareous. Plants grow best with high humidity. Set container on a wet pebble tray in order to increase humidity. In presence of dry air and high temperatures, humidity can be incremented with nebulisations, utilizing de-mineralized water at room temperature and not calcareous, in order not to cause anti-aestethic dots on the leaves. If you have one that is not flowering then keep very warm in the spring and water sparingly. To remove excess salt build-up, leach orchids pot once during the summer.
Feeding: Apply a very weak liquid feed every month or so over the growing season and a mild solutions (one-quartet strength) of foliar fertilizer at 3-month intervals to both garden and container plants. Apply fertilizer to leaves and roots.
Hardiness: It must be grown in a frost-free situation in open air in the tropical and humid subtropical climate countries, with temperatures which it is good to keep over the 14°C, best 20-24°C. Winter hardy to USDA Zones 10-11. North of Zone 10, this orchid is grown in containers that must be overwintered indoors. Its foliage gets damaged already with temperatures just over the 0°C. Flowering can be encouraged by a drop in temperature.
Pest & diseases: No serious insect or disease problems. Watch for aphids, thrips and scale. Mealybugs infestations are also a frequent problem. Rot may develop if soil is kept too moist.
Tip: Remove old leaves from plant base and dead flower spikes only.
Use: The plant, and even more its hybrids, can be cultivated as a house plant or patio container filler, or under tropical shade trees.
Propagation of monopodial orchids:
Stem cuttings: About 40-50 cm long top cuttings with at least two well-developed aerial roots are ideal. Intermediate cuttings can also be used. If smaller cuttings (2-3 nodes) are used, the time taken to flowering is longer.
Flower stalk cuttings: Sometimes vegetative shoots are produced from the flowered spikes in these genera. Otherwise the flower stalks can be cut off and laid horizontally on moist media, like sphagnum moss or coconut husk bits.
Layering: Air layering is found to give success in monopodials like Vanda. A slanting cut is given on the stem, at about 20-30 cm below the apex. The wound may be covered with some moist media, as in the case of air layering. The layers are separated and planted when they strike roots.
Micropropagation: The wide scale reproduction for commercial purposes is done by micro-propagation.
