Species
+

Arundina graminifolia (D.Don) Hochr.

Bamboo Orchid

Climate known 53 photographs Orchid
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Arundina graminifolia, also called bamboo orchid, is a species of orchid and the first sole accepted species of the genus Arundina, followed by A. caespitosa discovered in 2007. This tropical Asiatic genus extends from Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, the Ryukyu Islands, Malaysia, Singapore, China to Indonesia, the Philippines and New Guinea. It has become naturalized in Réunion, Fiji, French Polynesia, Micronesia, the West Indies, Costa Rica, Panama, Belize, and Hawaii. There are medicinal benefits to utilizing components of Arundina graminifolia, including soothing, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-pain properties; frequently used in Chinese medicine.

Text from Wikipedia, “Arundina”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Arundina

Arundina graminifolia, also called bamboo orchid, is a species of orchid and the first sole accepted species of the genus Arundina, followed by A. caespitosa discovered in 2007. This tropical Asiatic genus extends from Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, the Ryukyu Islands, Malaysia, Singapore, China to Indonesia, the Philippines and New Guinea. It has become naturalized in Réunion, Fiji, French Polynesia, Micronesia, the West Indies, Costa Rica, Panama, Belize, and Hawaii. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Arundina”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
(D.Don) Hochr.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +22
Wild records
612 in range· 252 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jul, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2326mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 250 mm (CHELSA)
Light
25–33DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a orchid by Orchidaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to November at the habitat (not shifted). Habitat rain 2326 mm a year, wettest May at 250 mm, driest January at 89 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 33 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 14.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Arundina bambusaefolia Lindl.; Arundina bambusifolia Lindl.; Arundina chinensis subsp. major S.Y.Hu; Arundina graminifolia subsp. revoluta; Arundina speciosa subsp. sarasinorum Schltr. and 2 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a orchid by Orchidaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to November at the habitat (not shifted).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1635 mm of 2326 mm) falls in May to November, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.7 °C against a yearly mean of 22.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2326 mm a year, wettest May at 250 mm, driest January at 89 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2326 mm a year at the habitat, 1635 mm of it May to November. Wettest month May at 250 mm, driest January at 89 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1466 mm to 3738 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 33 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 33 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 14.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 14.2 °C, the absolute minimum 11.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 25.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 4.3 °C to 23.0 °C), warmest day 28.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a orchid, 13 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 65 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 23 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Jul; mean night from 15 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2326 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 382 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 11.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 25.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°25.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)11.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 25–33RH 65–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 382 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C23 / 13–2924 / 14–3025 / 18–3126 / 21–3128 / 23–3028 / 23–3028 / 23–3128 / 23–3128 / 22–3026 / 21–2924 / 18–2923 / 14–29
Night °C15 / 4–2316 / 6–2317 / 9–2420 / 13–2422 / 15–2522 / 16–2522 / 16–2622 / 16–2522 / 15–2520 / 14–2417 / 9–2415 / 6–23
Rain mm89 / 15–378107 / 22–320163 / 48–314205 / 99–344250 / 169–361242 / 143–440228 / 145–415233 / 142–413246 / 119–394221 / 67–396215 / 39–405127 / 18–395
DLI27 / 16–3330 / 17–3833 / 20–3933 / 24–3831 / 27–3531 / 26–3532 / 25–3632 / 26–3530 / 26–3528 / 23–3426 / 20–3025 / 18–31
RH %65 / 57–7265 / 56–7166 / 57–7167 / 61–7167 / 63–7268 / 64–7367 / 63–7367 / 63–7367 / 63–7266 / 60–7267 / 58–7266 / 57–73

Each figure is the median across the 382 grid cells holding the 538 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1679:5930 (6.025, 116.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 25.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 382 distinct grid cells holding the 538 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1679:5930 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 6.00_116.250, lapse-corrected +893 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1361 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Tibet, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera· introduced: Mauritius, Réunion, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Fiji, Samoa, Society Is., Marianas, Hawaii, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker2.993, 101.716 · in the densest population, 181 records (30% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 612 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 252 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 85 km away. 941 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 74 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 612 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Arundina graminifoliaArundina graminifoliaArundina graminifoliaArundina graminifoliaArundina graminifoliaArundina graminifoliaArundina graminifoliaArundina graminifolia

Photographs: (c) Jason Alexander, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Sagnik Dutta Roy, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Arundina graminifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Notes on currently accepted species of Colletotrichum
Ruvishika S. Jayawardena (2016) · Mycosphere
PRIMARY PRODUCTIVITY AND ECOSYSTEM DEVELOPMENT ALONG AN ELEVATIONAL GRADIENT ON MAUNA LOA, HAWAI‘I
James W. Raich, Ann E. Russell, Peter M. Vitousek (1997) · Ecology
Medicinal Orchids - An Overview
Amritpal Singh, Sanjiv Duggal (2009) · OpenSIUC (Southern Illinois University Carbondale)
The specific DNA barcodes based on chloroplast genes for species identification of Orchidaceae plants
Huili Li, Wenjun Xiao, Tie Tong, Yongliang Li (2021) · Scientific Reports
Limited native plant regeneration in novel, exotic-dominated forests on Hawai’i
Joseph Mascaro, Kristen K. Becklund, R. Flint Hughes, Stefan A. Schnitzer (2008) · Forest Ecology and Management
Physiological Function of Phenolic Compounds in Plant Defense System
Vibhakar A. Chowdhary, Sheena Alooparampil, Rohan V. Pandya, Jigna G. Tank (2022) · Biochemistry
Identification and Characterization of Leaf-Inhabiting Fungi from Castanea Plantations in China
Ning Jiang, Xinlei Fan, Chengming Tian (2021) · Journal of Fungi
Setting the priority medicinal plants for conservation in Indonesia
Ria Cahyaningsih, Joana Magos Brehm, Nigel Maxted (2021) · Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution
Are fungi from adult orchid roots the best symbionts at germination? A case study
Yuanyuan Meng, Wenliu Zhang, Marc‐André Selosse, Jiang‐Yun Gao (2019) · Mycorrhiza

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 71 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.