Bulbophyllum purpurellum Ridl., Trans. Linn. Soc. London, Bot. 9 (1916) 185
Type: Kloss s.n. (Camp 6a, 3100 ft.) (holo BM)
Stems many, slender, flaccid, pendulous, 20 cm long; internodes 8 cm long. Pseudobulbs adnate to the stem, hardly free apex. Leaves elliptic-lanceolate or elliptic, thinly coriaceous, subacute, minutely mucronulata, 1-1.5 by 0.4 cm. Flowers very small, single, fascicled from a thin sheath 0.5 cm long. Pedicel and ovary 0.2 cm long. Median sepal lanceolate, acute, 0.2 cm long. Lateral sepals wider, base gibbose, forming a short mentum. Petals lanceolate, acute, half the size of the sepals, entirely purple. Lip almost 0.1 cm long, purple; claw long deflexed; blade tongue-shaped; lateral lobes erect, rounded, near the middle of the lip; apex lanceolate, acute. Column purple, three times shorter than the column-foot, erect, stout; stelidia subulate, thin. Anther ovate, acute. (After Ridley, 1916)
Colours: Flower purple.
Habitat: Epiphyte in lower montane forest; 759 m.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua (Indonesia); see map 96-1513M.jpg.
Cultivation: Intermediate growing epiphyte.