So many of our wonderful orchid species remind us of our travels in the tropical world and today’s species is one we bumped into in the lowland forests of Sarawak. There is nothing quite like growing plants to make field identification easy as one gets to know the leaves, roots, shoots and bulbs as well as the flowers.

Eria javanica sounds as if it should be endemic to Java but is actually found through the Eastern Himalayas from Sikkim eastwards, South East Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. The species is reported growing from sea level up to 1200m and we find that it enjoys conditions in our Warm Asia section (min 17C). In Mulu national park we found the species growing at 200m altitude and so it is definitely warm growing on Borneo.

The long spikes of fragrant flowers are produced from both this year’s and last year’s growths giving an impressive display of star like flowers. Most Eria species are hairy but in this species this is limited to a slightly hairy flower stem.