• Family : ORCHIDACEAE
  (Orchid Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : ORCHID FAMILY (ऑर्चिड फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : ORCHIDACEAE
• Basionym : Aerides cylindricum Lindl.
• Synonym(s) : Papilionanthe subulata (Willd.) Garay
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Papilionanthe subulata (Willd.) Garay
• Common name : Butterfly Orchid
• Habit : Herb
• Habitat : Evergreen and shola forests
• Comments / notes : Epiphytic. A striking plant when in flower, easily mistaken for Luisia sp. when vegetative. Often on hills above 1200m, abundant on thickets on fully sun-exposed slopes.
• Key identification features : Flowers pinkish-white
• Flower, Fruit : February-April
• Collector(s) Name : T.P.Ramamoorthy; C.J.Saldanha
• Collection Nos : HFP 1456, CJS 12902
• Collection Locality : Mankanahalli-Vanagur (Hassan); Byakarvalli (Hassan)
• Distribution :
  • Karnataka : Hassan district, Mysuru district
  • Kerala : Kannur district, Wayanad district, Palakkad district, Idukki district, Pathanamthitta district, Kollam district, Thiruvananthapuram district
  • Tamil Nadu : Throughout Tamil Nadu hills
• Native : Sri Lanka
• World Distribution : India, Sri Lanka
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI; Saldanha & Nicolson, 1976 - Flora of Hassan district, Karnataka; Rao & Razi, 1981 - Mysore; Matthew, K.M., The Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (2). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983.
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Papilionanthe cylindrica. Downloaded on 3 April 2025.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Field Image(s)