Sarcochilus, commonly known as butterfly orchids or fairy bells is a genus of about twenty species of flowering plants in the orchid family, Orchidaceae. Most species are epiphytes but a few species only grow on rocks or in leaf litter.
Although widespread through much of Southeast Asia and south to Australia, Sarcochilus has not had the attention it richly deserves. The attractive, flowering plants of this genus make handsome specimens. When Robert Brown first described the genus in 1810, he combined 2 Greek words, sarcos (flesh) and cheilos (lip), to describe the fleshy lips. While there have been more than 150 names published in this genus, the World Monocot Checklist currently recognizes only 25 of them as distinct species, many of them formerly scattered among several genera.
