Acriopsis indica

Description

Acriopsis indica is a species of orchid in the genus Acriopsis. It is widespread through much of Southeast Asia, native to Yunnan, Assam, Andaman Islands, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Java, Lesser Sunda Islands, Malaysia, Philippines, Sulawesi. Acriopsis, commonly known as chandelier orchids or 合萼兰属 (he e lan shu) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Orchidaceaes. Orchids in this genus are epiphytic herbs with spherical or cylindrical pseudobulbs, creeping, branched rhizomes, thin white roots, two or three leaves and many small flowers. The flowers are non-resupinate with the lateral sepals joined along their edges and have spreading petals and a three-lobed labellum. The column has projections that extend hood-like beyond the anther. The genus was first formally described in 1825 by Carl Ludwig Blume who published the description in Bijdragen tot de flora van Nederlandsch Indië.The name Acriopsis is derived from the Ancient Greek words akris meaning "locust" or "grasshopper" and opsis, meaning "having the appearance of" or "like",  referring to the grasshopper-like shape of the column." Orchids in the genus Acriopsis are found in India, Yunnan, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Melanesia, Micronesia and Queensland. They grow mainly in low, humid rainforests, sometimes ascending to medium altitudes. Their roots have specialised roots which grow from them up through the air and make branches which feed on litter and other debris. Found from Yunnan province of China, Assam India, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam Malaysia, java, Borneo, Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi and the Philippines in evergreen lowland and semi-deciduous and deciduous dry lowland and hill forests at elevations of sealevel 900 to 1800 meters as a small sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with crowded ovoid to subpyriform, sheathed pseudobulbs with 2 to 4 apical, linear, stalked leaves that blooms in the late winter and spring in nature on a many flowered, to 18" long, paniculate inflorescence with triangular bracts.