Captivated by the beauty, Rumphius explored the island describing and cataloging the plants and animals. It is said he discovered 170 species of orchids. Among the many orchids were two that remained little known until rediscovered by another German botanist one hundred and seventy-five years later.

Rumphius went blind from glaucoma at age 43, but he never abandoned his documentation of the natural history of Ambon. Nor did he ever return to Europe. He sent at least one of the orchids back. Rumphius died in 1702, five years before Carl Linné was born. Linnaeus named that orchid, Angraecum album majus.

In 1825, Karl Ludwig Blume found Rumphius's two orchids and established the genus Phalaenopsis from the Latin, phalaena, moth, and --opsis, sight, appearance, or likeness. The one orchid, previously named by Linnaeus, became known as Phalaenopsis amabilis, like a moth, lovely. Unlike Rumphius, Blume returned to Europe. He was appointed director of the herbarium at Leiden in 1829.

Phals or moth orchids were difficult, yet popular, plants to grow during the Victorian era. They only succeeded in greenhouses. According to R.J. Griesbach, the first hybrid Phal was created at Veitch and Son's Nursery in England in 1875. ("Development of Phalaenopsis Orchids for the Mass-Market", 2002, Trends in new crops and new uses, Janick and Whipkey)

The Phals of today are complex hybrids and selections. Most are triploids (three sets of chromosomes)--bigger, longer-lasting flowers and infinitely more tolerant of benign neglect. Somewhere in all the complexity of breeding, these 'grocery-shelf' moth orchids have an ancestor first reported by young military clerk far away from home.