A few to many, small to large, long-lasting, flat, often fragrant flowers are arranged on erect to hanging racemes or panicles.

Within 60 days after the pollination event, 30.6% of the tips of the pollen tubes started to enter the micropyles (i.e. entry points) of the ovules.

[8] Phalaenopsis are unique in that in some species of the subgenus Polychilos, the flowers turn into green leaves after pollination.

As in many other plants, the petals of the orchid flowers serve to attract pollinating insects and protect essential organs.

Following pollination, petals usually will undergo senescence (i.e. wilt and disintegrate) because it is metabolically expensive to maintain them.

However, in many Phalaenopsis species, such as P. violacea, the petals and sepals find new uses following pollination, thus escaping programmed cell death.

[10] In Phalaenopsis, phenylpropanoid enzymes are enhanced in the process of plant acclimatisation at different levels of photosynthetic photon flux.

[11] The genus Phalaenopsis was first formally described in 1825 by Carl Ludwig Blume and the description was published in Bijdragen tot de flora van Nederlandsch Indië.

Likewise the evidence shows that the subgenera Aphyllae and Parishianae, as currently defined, are not monophyletic.

Its members have distinctly 4-lobed, fringed labella with a short, curved spur situated near the middle of the lip as opposed to the base.

Ornithochilus formerly had three known species, native to China, the Himalayas and Southeast Asia:[21][22] The former genera Sedirea and Hygrochilus were incorporated into Phalaenopsis subgen.

[18] The species of this subgenus are morphologically distinct from the other subgenera, due to their four pollinia and spurred flowers, as well as their unusually long stems.

[30][31] Phalaenopsis, abbreviated Phal in the horticultural trade,[32] are among the most popular orchids sold as potted plants, owing to the ease of propagation and flowering under artificial conditions.

Since the advent of the tetraploid hybrid Phalaenopsis Doris, they have become extremely easy to grow and flower in the home, as long as some care is taken to provide them with conditions that approximate their native habitats.

If kept in the home, the flowers may last two to three months after which a Phalaenopsis orchid will need to conserve energy for further leaf, bud, and root development.

The long-held belief that reduced evening temperatures control flower initiation in Phalaenopsis was shown to be false.