Bulbophyllum bracteatum, commonly known as the blotched pineapple orchid,[1] is a species of epiphytic or sometimes lithophytic orchid that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has crowded pseudobulbs, tough, pale green or yellowish leaves and up to twenty five cream-coloured to yellowish flowers with purplish or reddish blotches. It usually grows in the tops of rainforest trees.
Bulbophyllum bracteatum is an epiphytic, rarely an lithophytic herb with crowded, wrinkled, pale green or yellowish pseudobulbs NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide. The leaves are elliptic to narrow oblong, thin, leathery, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide. Between five and twenty five cream-coloured or yellowish flowers NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide are arranged on a bluish flowering stem NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long with many bracts. The sepals are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and about 3sigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide, the petals about 2sigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and less than 1sigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide. The labellum is yellow, thick and fleshy, about 2sigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and 1sigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide. Flowering occurs between October and December.[2]
The blotched pineapple orchid was first formally described in 1891 by Robert D. FitzGerald who gave it the name Adelopetalum bracteatum and published the description in the Journal of Botany, British and Foreign from a specimen collected near the Tweed River.[3] [4] In the same year, Frederick Manson Bailey changed the name to Bulbophyllum bracteatum.[5] The specific epithet (bracteatum) is derived from the Latin word bractea, meaning "small leaf".[6]
Bulbophyllum bracteatum usually grows on the highest branches of rainforest trees, rarely on rock faces. It occurs between the Bunya Mountains in Queensland and the Dorrigo Plateau in New South Wales.