Liparis condylobulbon, commonly known as the tapered sphinx orchid[1] or 细茎羊耳蒜 (xi jing yang er suan)[2] is a plant in the orchid family. It is an epiphytic or lithophytic orchid with crowded, glossy green, cylinder-shaped pseudobulbs, each with two linear to lance-shaped leaves and between fifteen and thirty five pale green to cream-coloured flowers with an orange labellum. This orchid usually grows on trees and rocks in rainforest from Taiwan and Indochina to the south-west Pacific.
Liparis condylobulbon is an epiphytic or lithophytic, clump-forming herb with crowded, glossy green, cylinder-shaped pseudobulbs NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. Each pseudobulb has two thin, linear to lance-shaped leaves NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. Between fifteen and thirty five pale green to cream-coloured flowers, NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide are borne on a stiff flowering stem NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long. The sepals are NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and about 1sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide, the petals a similar length but narrower. The labellum is orange, about 3sigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and 2sigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide with a notched tip. Flowering occurs between December and August.[3] [4]
Liparis condylobulbon was first formally described in 1862 by Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach who published the description in Hamburger Garten- und Blumenzeitung.[5] [6]
The tapered sphinx orchid grows on trees and rocks in rainforest. It is found in Taiwan, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands, the Maluku Islands, the Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatra, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Queensland, Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, Vanuatu, the Santa Cruz Islands and the Wallis and Futuna Islands. In Australia, it occurs on the Iron and McIlwraith Ranges.