Species
+

Spathoglottis plicata Blume

Kalae, Kalae se'ekukula, Niuniu kalae, Philippine Ground Orchid, èhi, vahane vao haoè

Climate known 62 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

Spathoglottis plicata, commonly known as the Philippine ground orchid, or large purple orchid is an evergreen, terrestrial plant with crowded pseudobulbs, three or four large, pleated leaves and up to forty resupinate, pink to purple flowers. It is found from tropical and subtropical Asia to Australia and the western Pacific including Tonga and Samoa.

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

About the genus · Spathoglottis

Spathoglottis, commonly known as purple orchids or 苞舌兰属 is a genus of about fifty species of orchids in the family Orchidaceae. They are evergreen terrestrial herbs with crowded pseudobulbs, a small number of leaves and medium-sized resupinate flowers on an upright flowering stem. The sepals and petals are all similar to each other and are white, yellow, pink or purple. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
Blume
Native to
Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam +34
Wild records
496 in range· 238 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Feb, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2673mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Mar 263 mm (CHELSA)
Light
29–35DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (October to May at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 2673 mm a year, wettest March at 263 mm, driest August at 180 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 18.0 °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 Bletia angustata Gaudich., 1851; Bletia angustifolia Gaudich.; Calanthe poilanei Gagnep.; Paxtonia rosea Lindl.; Phaius rumphii Blume and 16 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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (October to May at the habitat (not shifted)).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1915 mm of 2673 mm) takes 8 months, October to May. Mean temperature moves 1.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve 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 2673 mm a year, wettest March at 263 mm, driest August at 180 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2673 mm a year at the habitat, 1915 mm of it October to May. Wettest month March at 263 mm, driest August at 180 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1655 mm to 4220 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 29 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 35 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 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

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 18.0 °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 18.0 °C, the absolute minimum 14.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 21.3 °C in August (across the envelope cells 15.9 °C to 25.3 °C), warmest day 27.3 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.0 °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: 66 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 26 °C in Jul to 27 °C in Feb; mean night from 21 °C in Aug to 23 °C in Mar. The cold quarter, Jul to Sep, is the three months around the coldest night. 2673 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 361 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 14.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.3 °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°29.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)14.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 29–35RH 66–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 361 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 °C27 / 23–2927 / 23–3027 / 24–3027 / 24–3027 / 23–3027 / 22–2926 / 21–2926 / 21–2927 / 22–2927 / 23–2927 / 24–2927 / 23–29
Night °C22 / 17–2522 / 17–2523 / 18–2522 / 18–2623 / 18–2622 / 17–2621 / 16–2521 / 16–2522 / 17–2522 / 17–2522 / 17–2522 / 17–25
Rain mm258 / 64–465246 / 47–448263 / 78–438229 / 109–356222 / 109–356194 / 107–364186 / 81–393180 / 67–361198 / 66–368225 / 76–380218 / 104–397254 / 106–434
DLI32 / 27–4035 / 28–3834 / 30–3933 / 28–4031 / 24–3629 / 21–3429 / 22–3432 / 26–3734 / 30–3834 / 28–4033 / 26–4131 / 25–42
RH %68 / 62–7468 / 62–7468 / 62–7368 / 63–7368 / 63–7368 / 63–7367 / 61–7366 / 61–7367 / 62–7267 / 62–7368 / 62–7368 / 62–74

Each figure is the median across the 361 grid cells holding the 462 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 1358:6031 (22.075, 121.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 14.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.3 °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 361 distinct grid cells holding the 462 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1358:6031 (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 22.00_121.875, lapse-corrected +138 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 138 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.
NativeNansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Queensland, Fiji, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Santa Cruz Is., Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Caroline Is., Marianas· introduced: Comoros, Réunion, Seychelles, Nauru, Marquesas, Society Is., Hawaii, Florida, Panama, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Windward Is.
Kew's description“pseudobulbous geophyte” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-22.106, 166.682 · in the densest population, 89 records (18% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 496 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 238 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 32 km away. 986 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 34 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 of the 496 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Spathoglottis plicataSpathoglottis plicataSpathoglottis plicataSpathoglottis plicataSpathoglottis plicataSpathoglottis plicataSpathoglottis plicataSpathoglottis plicata

Photographs: (c) Mochamad Firmansyah Agustio, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Jason Berger, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Michael Berardozzi, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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 Spathoglottis plicata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Systemic endopolyploidy in Spathoglottis plicata (Orchidaceae) development
Maocheng Yang, Chiang Shiong Loh (2004) · BMC Cell Biology
Micropropagation of Spathoglottis plicata
Whei-Lan Teng, Leila Nicholson, M.-C. Teng (1997) · Plant Cell Reports
Ex vitro symbiotic seed germination of Spathoglottis plicata Blume on common orchid cultivation substrates
Natdanai Aewsakul, Daroonsri Maneesorn, Phanu T. Serivichyaswat, Auttapon Taluengjit (2013) · Scientia Horticulturae
DIURNAL STOMATAL AND ACIDITY RHYTHMS IN ORCHID LEAVES
Chong‐Jin Goh, P. N. Avadhani, Chiang‐Shiong Loh, C. HANEGRAAF (1977) · New Phytologist
Drying rate and dehydrin synthesis associated with abscisic acid‐induced dehydration tolerance in Spathoglottis plicata orchidaceae protocorms
Xing‐Jun Wang, Chiang‐Shiong Loh, Hock‐Hin Yeoh, Wendell Q. Sun (2002) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Multiple regeneration pathways in Spathoglottis plicata Blume — A study in vitro
MM Hossain, Rubel Dey (2013) · South African Journal of Botany
Infection of Spathoglottis plicata (Orchidaceae) seeds by mycorrhizal fungus
T. K. Tan, W. S. Loon, Eugene Khor, Chiang‐Shiong Loh (1998) · Plant Cell Reports
Two-coat systems for encapsulation ofSpathoglottis plicata (Orchidaceae) seeds and protocorms
Eugene Khor, Weng-Fun Ng, Chiang‐Shiong Loh (1998) · Biotechnology and Bioengineering

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.

Other Spathoglottis 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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 54 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.