Eulophia speciosa flower spike

A Eulophia speciosa inflorescence consists of a lax spike bearing from ten to thirty flowers.

A dark, triangular shape, the spur at the back of the lip, can be detected on one flower at the top on the left. At the opposite end of the picture, on a flower in the bottom right, the three tiny sepals, narrow and green, are visible recurving sharply away from the rest of the flower. They served as a protective cover in the bud stage, now shunning the whole affair.

The whitish lateral lip lobes, rising on the sides of the column are not always as clearly visible as in the flowers seen here.

The stringy ovaries, shiny and green, show the twisting that came from resupination. This process turns the flower upside down for the lip to be presented below the column in the open flower, the petals above.

A tiny floral bract with pointed tip is present on the stem below each ovary (Liltved and Johnson, 2012; Pooley, 1988; Onderstall, 1984).