A rare orchid once presumed extinct in Borneo has been confirmed in the Philippines, reshaping scientists’ understanding of how plants move across Southeast Asia. The finding underscores the archipelago’s role as a last refuge for fragile montane species as forests shrink across the region.

In a paper published in Gardens’ Bulletin Singapore, Filipino botanists and their partners formally report Bulbophyllum placochilum from Mount Malinao in Albay province and from South Cotabato and Misamis Oriental in Mindanao.

Until now the species was treated as a Borneo endemic, known only from Sarawak and Sabah. Its presence on both Luzon and Mindanao effectively plugs the Philippines into a biogeographic corridor that links the country’s cloud forests with those of northern Borneo.

The orchid grows between 1,100 and 1,700 meters above sea level, clinging to dead branches in open-canopy stretches of forest and in cool, deeply shaded mossy stands. These are the kinds of high-elevation habitats that are among the first to feel the effects of a warming climate and encroaching development, making any new records there a conservation red flag as much as a scientific milestone.

Field botanists describe Bulbophyllum placochilum as a small, unobtrusive epiphyte distinguished by its flattened floral lip—a feature referenced in the Greek roots of its name, plakos (flat) and cheilos (lip).

The new study refines the technical description of the species and, for the first time, documents its fruit as a “glabrous, obovoid red capsule with persistent senescent floral parts,” details that help separate it from closely related Bulbophyllum orchids in the region.

“Field observations suggest that Bulbophyllum placochilum is rare.” the authors write, noting that in Borneo it was long considered extinct until it was rediscovered in East Sarawak and Malaysia’s Kinabalu National Park. In the Philippines, scattered sightings from Mindanao dating back to 2020 hinted at a broader range, but these had not been critically assessed until now.

The team evaluates the plant as vulnerable under the 2024 criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, citing small, fragmented populations and ongoing pressure on mid- to high-elevation forests. While the new record technically expands the species’ range, it also exposes it to the Philippines’ well-documented problems of habitat loss, mining, and agricultural conversion—particularly in frontier uplands that remain outside protected-area boundaries.

For local scientists, the discovery adds to a growing body of work positioning the Philippines as a global hotspot for Bulbophyllum diversity. “In the Philippines, 208 Bulbophyllum species are currently recorded, of which approximately 146 (c. 70%) are endemic.” the study notes.  That tally has been rising as groups such as the Philippine Taxonomic Initiative, the University of the Philippines – Los Baños, and Ateneo de Manila University continue to describe new orchids from remote sites across Luzon and Mindanao.

The paper also updates the identification key for Bulbophyllum section Altisceptrum in the country, with B. placochilum now recognized as the fourth additional species in the group. 

For conservationists, the message is clear: even in 2025, the Philippines’ mountains are still yielding plants that science barely knows—and whose survival will depend on how quickly policy catches up with what field biologists are finding in the trees.

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