Red bead orchid facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Red bead orchid |
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| Scientific classification | |
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Bulbophyllum
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| Species: |
minutissimum
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The Red Bead Orchid (scientific name: Bulbophyllum minutissimum) is a super tiny orchid. It's also called the Grain-of-Wheat Orchid because it's so small! This plant is an epiphyte or lithophyte. This means it grows on other plants like trees, or on rocks, instead of in the soil.
It has small, flat, reddish or green parts called pseudobulbs. These are like tiny storage tanks for water. The orchid also has tiny, scale-like leaves. Its flowers are small, whitish to reddish, with dark red stripes. You can find this orchid growing on trees and rocks, especially in wet areas like swamps and near streams in eastern Australia.
About the Red Bead Orchid
The Red Bead Orchid is a type of herb. It has many crowded, flat, round pseudobulbs. These pseudobulbs are usually reddish or green. Each one is only about 2 to 3 millimeters (0.08 to 0.12 inches) wide.
These pseudobulbs have tiny holes called stomata on their inside surface. This special design helps the plant save water. It reduces how much water the plant loses through a process called transpiration.
Each pseudobulb has one very small, papery, scale-like leaf. This leaf is only about 1 millimeter (0.04 inches) long.
Its Tiny Flowers
A single flower grows on a thin stem. This stem is about 3 millimeters (0.12 inches) long. The flower itself is super tiny, about 2.5 millimeters (0.1 inches) long and 3.5 millimeters (0.14 inches) wide.
The flowers are usually whitish or reddish. They have wide, dark red stripes. The part of the flower that holds the seeds, called the ovary, can be bumpy or hairy.
The outer parts of the flower, called sepals, are about 2 to 3 millimeters (0.08 to 0.12 inches) long. The inner parts, called petals, are even smaller, about 1.5 millimeters (0.06 inches) long. The special lip-shaped petal, called the labellum, is red. It is about 2 millimeters (0.08 inches) long and 1 millimeter (0.04 inches) wide. This labellum is curved and feels a bit fleshy.
The Red Bead Orchid usually blooms from October to November.
Naming the Orchid
The Red Bead Orchid was first officially described in 1865. A botanist named Ferdinand von Mueller gave it the name Dendrobium minutissimum. He wrote about it in a book called Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae.
Later, in 1878, he changed its name to Bulbophyllum minutissimum. The second part of its scientific name, minutissimum, comes from a Latin word. It means "smallest," showing just how tiny this orchid is!
Where it Grows
The Bulbophyllum minutissimum orchid likes wet places. You can find it growing on trees and rocks in swamps, along stream banks, and even in mangrove areas.
It lives in eastern Australia. Its range stretches from the Blackdown Tableland in Queensland down to Milton in New South Wales.
See also
In Spanish: Bulbophyllum minutissimum para niños
