Thrixspermum carinatifolium

Thrixspermum carinatifolium, commonly known as the Christmas Island hairseed, is an epiphytic orchid with flattened, straggly stems that form clumps with many branching aerial roots. It has flattened fleshy leaves arranged in two ranks along the stems and white or yellowish, widely opening flowers. This orchid occurs from Peninsular Malaysia to Christmas Island, an Australian territory.
Description.
"Thrixspermum carinatifolium" is an epiphytic herb with flattened, straggly stems long and many wiry, branching roots. It has between five and ten elliptic leaves long, wide with a rounded tip and arranged in two ranks. The flowers are white to yellowish, long and wide arranged on a stiff, wiry flowering stem long. The sepals and petals spread widely apart from each other, the sepals long and about wide, the petals shorter and narrower than the sepals. The labellum is about long and wide with three lobes. The side lobes are about long, narrow, curved and pointed. The middle lobe is thick and egg-shaped with a curved sac and rounded callus. Flowering occurs sporadically.
Taxonomy and naming.
The Christmas Island hairseed was first formally described in 1891 by Henry Ridley who gave it the name "Sarcochilus carinitifolius" and published the description in "Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society". In 1911, Rudolf Schlechter changed the name to "Thrixspermum carinatifolium". The specific epithet ("carinatifolium") is derived from the Latin words "carinatus" meaning "keeled" and "folium" meaning "leaf".
Distribution and habitat.
"Thrixspermum carinatifolium" grows on the upper branches of rainforest trees, sometimes near the sea. It occurs in Java, southeast Johor and Aur Island in Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Christmas Island.