A deciduous terrestrial or lithophytic orchid about 15 cm tall and 30 cm wide whose spherical pseudobulbs each produce a single folded leaf, hence the Chinese one-leaf orchid. Flowers before the leaf, pink (also a white form), with a white fringed lip strongly marked and mottled brown and yellow inside with keels; one or two flowers per pseudobulb, 6–8 cm across. The leaf falls in autumn and the bulb rests. The epithet refers to Taiwan (Formosa). Assessed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. Called the windowsill orchid in English for its hardiness and willingness to flower on a cool sill.
Habitat
Cloud forest at middle to high altitude, on mossy cliffs, fallen logs and trunks at 1,500–2,500 m in cool mist; a pot plant in cool regions.
Distribution
Native to northern and central Taiwan (sizeable wild populations at Alishan and Xitou) and south-eastern China (Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi); Taiwan is the centre of appreciation and conservation, wild in the mountains of eastern China, a wild-plant pot subject in Japan (taiwan-ichiyōran), absent from Singapore.
Season and behaviour
March to May, March and April in Taiwan's mountains; each flower lasts two or three weeks.
Photography tips
These are the FilmAnalysis editors' notes, not content from the sources.
A large pink flower with a fringed lip: a head-on macro for the brown and yellow markings and keels inside the lip, in soft light, half a stop under for pink. Sheets of pleione on mossy cliffs in cloud forest are a Taiwanese wild sight, wide and low, best in mist. Pots in window light. A vulnerable wild orchid: photograph, never collect, and keep off the moss.
Photographic styles
Pink orchids on a mossy cliff; macro of the fringed lip.
Similar species
Pleione bulbocodioides (mainland China, similar colour); Pleione yunnanensis (paler pink, different lip markings); Cymbidium (many leaves, small flowers).
Related badge
None yet. No validated photo recognition exists for this species, so no badge is tied to it: a name in the encyclopedia is not evidence in a photograph.
The illustration is original FilmAnalysis artwork. The photograph is from Wikimedia Commons; its licence and author are under it.
Why it is listed: this species comes from the Flower checklist (GBIF backbone and Wikidata verified). Names follow the GBIF backbone and Wikidata; the facts follow the sources below; photo recognition is not offered.
