Eulophia ovalis subsp. ovalis flower spike at night

The outside surfaces of Eulophia ovalis subsp. ovalis sepals start off green and shiny as on the buds at the top of this flower spike, turning a red-brown purplish colour as the flowers open. The subtending bracts below each flower don’t follow suit, remaining green as they lengthen on open flowers.

The inside surfaces of the sepals are pale compared to their dark outsides. Faint, off-white vein lines, longitudinal and parallel, are partly visible across them. Towards the pointed tips of the sepals the colouring morphs haphazardly into small dark patches.

One developing bud (on the right towards the top of the spike in picture) shows its spur protruding upwards, not yet twisted down in resupination as on open flowers.

The forward spreading, white petals of the flower curve up at their tips, like some eagle wings in flight. The mid-lobe of the lip is oval (where the ovalis of the specific name comes from), its tip acutely pointed.

The lip’s erect lateral lobes, positioned near the back, are covered in bluish purple vein lines on their inside surfaces. Fleshy parallel ridges run forward across the lip crest in the basal third of its length. These ridges are accompanied by long, thin papillae that curl and bend forward at the front end of the crest (Liltved and Johnson, 2012).