Luisia tristis, commonly known as the velvet orchid,[2] is a species of epiphytic or lithophytic orchid with wiry stems often forming tangled clumps, cylindrical leaves and flowering stems with up to three green flowers with a dark red to dark maroon labellum.

This orchid occurs in tropical Asia, New Guinea, Australia and some islands of the Western Pacific Ocean.

Luisia tristis is an epiphytic or lithophytic herb that forms straggling or tangled clumps and has thick, flattened roots and wiry stems 100–400 millimetres (3.9–16 in) long and 1–3 millimetres (0.039–0.12 in) wide.

[2][3][4] The velvet orchid was first formally described in 1786 by Georg Forster who gave it the name Epidendrum triste and published the description in Florulae Insularum Australium Prodromus.

[1] The specific epithet (tristis) is a Latin word meaning "sad".