Phalaenopsis amabilis, commonly known as the moon orchid or moth orchid in India and as in Indonesia, is a species of flowering plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae. It is native to the Indonesia and Australia, and widely cultivated as a decorative houseplant. It is an epiphytic or lithophytic herb with long, thick roots, between two and eight thick, fleshy leaves with their bases hiding the stem and nearly flat, white, long-lasting flowers on a branching flowering stem with up to ten flowers on each branch. Description Phalaenopsis amabilis is an epiphytic, rarely lithophytic herb with coarse, flattened, branching roots up to long and usually wide. Between two and eight fleshy, dark green, oblong to egg-shaped leaves long and wide are arranged in two rows along the stem. The stem is but hidden by the leaf bases. The flowers are arranged on a stiff, arching flowering stem long emerging from a leaf base, with a few branches near the tip. Each branch of the flowering stem bears between two and ten white, long-lasting flowers on a stalk (including the ovary) long. Each flower is long and wide with the sepals and petals free from and spreading widely apart from each other. The sepals are egg-shaped, long and about wide and the petals broadly egg-shaped to almost square, long and wide. The labellum is white with yellow and reddish markings, about long with three lobes. The side lobes curve upwards and partly surround the column. The middle lobe is cross-shaped with a rounded tip and two long, thread-like wavy arms. There is a large yellow callus near the base of the labellum. Flowering time depends on distribution but occurs from April to December in New Guinea. Taxonomy and naming In 1750, before the system of binomial nomenclature had been formalised by Carl Linnaeus, Georg Eberhard Rumphius had collected the species on Ambon Island and described it as Angraecum albus majus in his book Herbarium Amboinense. Linnaeus described it in Species Plantarum giving it the binomial Epidendrum amabile and in 1825, Carl Ludwig Blume changed the name to Phalaenopsis amabilis. The specific epithet (amabilis) is a Latin word meaning "lovely". Subspecies There are three subspecies of P. amabilis recognised by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families: Phalaenopsis amabilis subsp. amabilis which is the most widespread subspecies and is distinguished from the other subspecies by its cross-shaped labellum middle lobe, the base