Malayan Ground Orchid: Spathoglottis plicata

Spathoglottis plicata, is known commonly as the Malayan Ground Orchid, and the Philippine Ground Orchid. It grows natively in southeast Asia an surrounding islands. One of the most common places to see it however is in the islands of Hawaii. It was introduced to the islands sometime before 1929 by Harold Lyon, the head of what eventually became the Lyon Arboretum, (in Manoa Valley just behind Waikiki).

Today the Malayan Ground Orchid is one of the most common orchids you’ll see in the Hawaiian Islands. It can be seen as you hike through wetter streams and along the edge of waterfalls on all the islands. Its purple flowers will quickly stop a hiker as few Hawaiian forests don’t generally have many showy flowers in bloom on any given hike.

Diversity of Orchids in Hawaii

The casual tourist might assume that Hawaii is a mecca of wild orchids. Yet there were only a couple native orchids found here. This isn’t totally unfathomable, however, when you take into account the fact that most orchids form tight relationships with particular insect pollinators. For an orchid to successfully colonize the islands it would need a successful seed to germinate here while at the same time having its insect pollinator. Thus, the only species to have made it here were orchids with a generalized insect pollinator. While the Malayan Ground Orchid is not one of Hawaii’s native species, it is one of the most common.