World's first night-flowering orchid is discovered

Botanists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity Naturalis have described the first night-flowering orchid known to science on the island of New Britain, near Papua New Guinea.

For one night only

Bulbophyllum nocturnum, from the island of New Britain near Papua New Guinea, is the first known example of an orchid species with flowers that consistently open after dark and close in the morning. Its flowers last one night only. The discovery is published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.

"…it is a race against time to find species like this that only occur in primeval tropical forests. As we all know, such forests are disappearing fast.
Kew orchid specialist, André Schuiteman"

There are only a relatively small number of plant species that have flowers which open at night and close during the day. Up until now, no orchids were known to be among them, despite the fact that many orchids are pollinated by moths. However, these moth-pollinated orchids all have flowers that remain open during the day, even if they are mainly pollinated after dark.

Read full article: Kew Royal Botanical Garden