Christmas Island Botanical Postage Stamps

Date of issue: 30 June 1986
Designer: Ian Loe, England
Printer: Format International

Part of a series of four stamps on indigenous flowers

Plant: Brachypeza archytas

Family: ORCHIDACEAE

Ridley's Orchid, Sage Orchid

The stem of the orchid is hidden by a bunch of aerial roots, the 4-5 leaves are 10-22 cm long. A flower-stem 15-35 cm long supports many densely spaced small white flowers.
It is endemic to Christmas Island, grows as an epiphyte on trees and is relatively common..