Phalaenopsis lowii
Myanmar to Thailand. Discovered originally by the Rev. C. S. Parish in Moulmein, it was introduced through him by Messrs. Low and Co. in 1862, at which time Reichenbach described it in the BOTANISCHE ZEITUNG. This species is reported to be deciduous, dropping its leaves after flowering, during the severe dry season which follows the season of excessive rain, The deciduous, pointed leaves are from two to four inches long. The inflorescence is up to fifteen inches long, arching, bearing few to many flowers on a branching stem. The flowers can be two inches across, white with purple flush toward the base of the sepals and petals, and deep purple on the middle lobe of the lip. The sepals are elliptic, the petals three times as broad, nearly rhomboidal with the outer margin rounded. The lip has small, hooked side lobes which are erect; the middle lobe is oblong and toothed at the front margin, a two-lobed crest at its base is purple, and the thickened median ridge forms a plate near the apex. The column is curved; the anther has a long hooked beak.