Phalaenopsis is a genus of about seventy species of plants in the family Orchidaceae. Phalaenopsis orchids got their name from the Latin words “phal,” meaning moth, and “opsis,” meaning appearance. Charles Ludwig de Blume (or Karl Ludwig von Blume), the German-Dutch botanist who named them, reportedly thought they looked like moths in flight. Therefore, Phalaenopsis is also called “Moth Orchid.”. They bloom in small to large, long-lasting, flat, often fragrant flowers arranged in 5 to 15 on erect panicle branches near the end. Flowers can last up to three months. The sepals and petals are free from and spread widely apart. The lateral sepals are usually larger than the dorsal sepals, and the petals are much wider than the sepals. The labellum is joined stiffly to the column and has three lobes. The side lobes are erect and more or less parallel to each other, with the middle lobe sometimes having a pair of appendages or antennae.

The leaves are usually arranged in two rows, with relatively large, leathery, oblong to elliptic, and sometimes succulent and short leafy stems hidden by overlapping leaf bases. The orchids in this genus are monopodial epiphytes or lithophytes with long, coarse roots and short, leafy stems.

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