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Found in Asia. India, Filipinas, Indonesia and North of Australia, specially in warm and wet jungles, normally near wáter sources.

Etimology:
It’s name comes from the greek phalaina “butterfly” and opsis “looks like”, and it refers to the flowers of almost all subspecies. The common name all over the world is “butterfly orchid” or “moth orchid”.
This specie includes around 70 subspecies and so many manipulated hybrids, the flowers shapes, colors and sizes are very vast. Almost all orchids we find in stores are hybrids from the original species, making this specie one of the most popular amongst orchid’s enthusiasts.

It is special for beginners due its strength and easy to care. Ideal for home due to low special lighting needs a temperature almost identical to ours and overlong duration of the flowers.
This specie is an epiphyte, they live in the trees, however it is not invasive nor parasite to the trees, the roots cling tightly to the bark of the tree. However, they can live quite well in a small pot. … » Continue reading: Phalaenopsis

It is located in very different habitats throughout Asia, Japan, Borneo, Ceylon, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand.
Its name “Dendrobium” comes from the Greek word “dendro” = “fingers” in reference to the epiphytic nature of these plants.  After Bulbophilum Dendrobium is the second largest genus with over 1200 species of epiphytic orchids.
These orchids have a very large among the highest of all.
Some are evergreen which means they retain their leaves for two or three years after flowering.
These orchid plants grow rapidly over the summer to take a long rest during winter. In spring new shoots are formed from the base of the main floor and new flower buds.

The flowers are in the pseudobulbs that have formed the previous year. Others do lose their leaves at the end of the growing season (deciduous).

These orchid flowers varied in form, but with petals and sepals of the same size. These orchid plants are usually sold in Dendrobium nobile varieties, which comes from mountainous regions of Southeast Asia. The varieties have white or pink flowers, often with a dark spot on the lip width.

Leaves from 10 to 25 cm long, pianos or cylindrical, soft or leathery evergreen or deciduous, present along pseudobulbs ovoid or tapered, smooth or wrinkled, pendulous or erect, growing on a small rhizome. … » Continue reading: Dendrobium

This plant grows in the northeastern area of Brazil, in the states of Pernambuco and Alagoas. They grow to different sizes depending on the area from which they originate. Those that are growing in Pernambuco are smaller, with small but colored flowers, with most of them being lilac. The interior part of the flower is a dark lilac color. Plants from Alagoas are bigger and have larger flowers. Some varieties, such as Cattleya labiata var. semialba, have large white flowers with a touch of yellow. There is another variety of semialba, with lilac in the inferior part of the flower. This plant is an epiphyte, growing up in trees, where light is plentiful. However, there are also many other places where this plant could grow, such as directly on rock with very little soil.

The plant itself is a medium sized labiate Cattleya, with a medium sized rhizome. The rhizome has long leaves, with a tough consistency because of the aridity in the canopy of trees, due to a short dry season. … » Continue reading: Cattleya Labiata