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Phalaenopsis modesta (J.J.Smith 1906)
 
Modest Phalaenopsis
(from Latin modestus, simple, modest)
Distribution : Sabah, Kalimantan (Bornéo)
Synonym

Polychilos modesta (Shim 1982)
 
       Epiphytic plant with short stem completely enclosed by imbricating leaf-sheaths.
      Roots fleshy, flattened, flexuous, glabrous.
     Leaves distichous, fleshy, very few (1 to 4, but may be more in culture), obovate or obovate-lanceolate or obovate-elliptic, acute, at sub-petiolate base,15 cm long , 6 cm wide.
     Flower stalk thin, often branching, arcuate, shorter than the foliage (not always in culture), bearing few flowers (not always in culture), rachis slightly in zigzag.
      Bracts ovate, lanceolate, cucullate of 3 mm.
      Flower from 3 to 4 cm with well spread out segments. Dorsal sepal oblong-elliptic or obovate, obtuse. Lateral sepals oblique, ovate or ovate-elliptic, acute, dorsally carinate with slightly mucronate apex. Petals almost elliptic or ovate-elliptic, acute, seldom sub-obtuse, shorters and much more narrower than sepals.
     Lip 3-lobed, as long as the sepals. Lateral lobes almost rectangular, oblong, with apex bifide sub-truncated with a callus in middle.		  

     Midlobe oblong-elliptic or ovate-elliptic, rounded at apex, convex, with a membranous keel from base to middle.The apex is furnished with a lengthened callus, glabrous, (in very seldom cases provided with some hairs). The disc between lateral lobes is provided of a pair of fleshy callus superimposed, bifides. The former callus is provided of a median furrow.
      Column fleshy, cylindrical, somewhat arcuate, slightly dilated toward the base, from 7 to 9 mm long.
      Pedicellate ovary of 2 cm long.
   
Lip of Phalaenopsis modesta (Sweet)
  
         
Observations
  
 
       Flowering spring/autumn.
      Color very variable. Segments white or pale pink, with transverse bands, strippes or bars pink to solid mauve. White lip with crimson apex , callus yellow on the lateral lobes.
      He grow at an altitude bordering the 150 m in the primary forests and up to 350 meters for certain authors and from 50 to 900 meters for others.
     The flower is scented with an odor of honeysuckle, lilac.
     Not used for hybrids creation.
   
 
Average temperature humidity and pluviometry, evolution relative in the north of Borneo to a rise in 350 meters (area of Tawau)