Dendrobium affine [Decais.] Steudel 1840 SECTION Phalaenanthe
Alba variety Photos by © Lourens Grobler
Common Name or Meaning The Similar Dendrobium
Flower Size 1.2 to 1.6" [3-4 cm]
Found in New Guinea, and the islands of Timor, Seram and Tanimbar in high light, moist locations at the sides of lagoons, swamps or rainforests and even at the edges of deserts and harsh country at elvations of sea level to 300 meters as a small to medium sized, hot growing epiphyte with stout, tapered to conical pseudobulbs carrying 2 to 10, rigid, leathery, ovate-lanceolate to oblong leaves that are often decurved and blooms in the fall through spring on a slender, nodding, 4 to 20" [10 to 50 cm] long, racemose inflorescence arising on both leafy and leafless pseudobulbs with successively opening, long-lived flowers that all face in one direction.
Many references puit D dicuphum as a synonym of D affine but I have left them separate for now.
Synonyms Callista affinis (Decne.) Kuntze 1891; Callista leucophota (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Dendrobium bigibbum Mueller not Lindley; Dendrobium leucolophotum Rchb.f. 1882; Dendrobium leucophotum Rchb.f. 1882; Dendrobium urvillei Finet ? *Onychium afine Decaisne 1836; Vappodes affinis (Decne.) M.A.Clem. & D.L.Jones 2002;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchidaceae Monandre-Dendrobiinae Fr. Kraenzlin 1910; Orchidaceae Monandre-Dendrobiinae Fr. Kraenzlin 1910 as D leucolophotum; Orchidaceae Monandre-Dendrobiinae Fr. Kraenzlin 1910 as D urvillei; Flora of Malaya Vol 1 Orchids Holttum 1953; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; AOS Bulletin Vol 51 No 1 1982 drawing/photo fide; Dendrobium Orchids of Australia Upton 1989 drawing/photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 56 No 3 1992 photo fide; Orchid Species Culture Dendrobium Bakers 1996; Orchids of Papua New Guinea Millar 1999 photo fide; Dendrobium and their Relatives Lavarack, Harris and Stocker 2000 photo good; A to Z of South East Asian Orchid Species Vol 1 O'Byrne 2001 photo fide; Lindleyana Vol 17 No 1 2002; Botanica's Orchids 2002 photo fideFlora Malesiana Orchids of New Guinea Vol II Shuiteman and de Vogel 2002; The Dendrobiums H. P. Wood 2006 photo fide; Malesian Orchid Journal Vol 6 2010 photo fide; Genera Orchidacearum Vol 6 Epidendrodeae Part 3 Pridgeon, Cribb, Chase and Rasmussen 2014; AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #11 2016 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 83 #1 2019 photo fide;
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