Eulophia tuberculata inflorescences

A Eulophia tuberculata inflorescence bears 10 to 30 flowers in a long, lax spike. The nodding flowers seen here present more of the yellow upper petal surfaces than the reddish lower ones. Flowers lower down in the spike, the older ones, have more sagging to the petals than the well spread younger flowers higher up.

But it is the bright yellow lip crests bulging in the centre of each pendulous lip midlobe that are most eye-catching here. The flowers caught in profile in the photo disclose the absence (almost) of spurs from E. tuberculata lips.

Lip crests end before the tip of the lip. In the plants photographed, the front parts of the lips are quite narrow, maybe because the margins in those parts are more turned down than is sometimes seen (Liltved and Johnson, 2012; Lowrey and Wright, 1987).