Acrolophia micrantha flowers at angles

The flowers of Acrolophia micrantha grow in inflorescences of up to five-branched panicles, their erect, lax racemes up to 30 cm long, bearing many small flowers. The specific epithet, micrantha, means small flowers (micro is small, anthos flower in Greek). A short, narrow bract, less than half the length of the pedicel, subtends each flower.

The flower of this Acrolophia is resupinate, i.e. twisted through 180? before opening to position the lip at the bottom, the median sepal at the top. Flower diameter is about 7 mm, the pedicel and ovary combined about 1 cm long.

The sepals and lateral petals are purplish green or brown, the three-lobed lip white with red-purple lines transversal across the two side-lobes. The square to obovate central lobe of the lip has three rows of erect papillae or fleshy, nipple-like outgrowths across its surface.

Flowering happens from late winter to early summer (Liltved and Johnson, 2012).