                   PARADISIACAL - FLOWERS SERIES The moth orchid was one of the first orchids to be described from the Far East and its hybrids are now popular as houseplants. Orchids (Orchidaceae) are the largest family of flowering plants, and there are over 50 species of Phalaenopsis alone.Phalaenopsis amabilis usually grows on trees, rarely on rocks, in rainforest where the humidity is high but there is free air movement. Subspecies amabilis has the widest distribution and occurs from Palawan in the southern Philippines to Borneo, Sumatra and Java. It was originally described (as Angraecum albus majus ) from the island of Amboina in Indonesia by the German-Dutch botanist Georg Eberhard Rumphius in 1750. It's ecology is mainly an epiphytic on tree trunks, branches and rocks in lowland tropical rain forest.
