Bryobium eriaeoides, commonly known as brittle urchin orchid,[2] is an epiphytic or lithophytic clump-forming orchid that has fleshy, green pseudobulbs, each with two leaves and between three and twelve cup-shaped white to purplish flowers but that sometimes remain closed.

Bryobium eriaeoides is an epiphytic or lithophytic herb that forms large clumps with cylindrical pseudobulbs 60–100 millimetres (2.4–3.9 in) long and 10–14 millimetres (0.39–0.55 in) wide covered with papery white bracts when young.

[2][3][4] The brittle urchin orchid was first formally described in 1888 by Frederick Manson Bailey who gave it the name Dendrobium eriaeoides and published the description in A Synopsis of the Queensland Flora.

[1][5] In 2002 Mark Clements and David Jones changed the name to Bryobium eriaeoides.

[6] The specific epithet (eriaeoides) refers to the similarity of this species to those in the genus Eria.