Dendrobium rarum Schltr. 1912 SECTION Pedilonum Photo courtesy of Patricia Harding.
Common Name The Rare Dendrobium
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in northern Papua and New Guinea as well as Vanuatu in moss-covered mist forests at elevations of 1200 to 1300 meters and in primary and secondary forests at elevations of 40 to 800 meters as a medium sized, hot to cool growing epiphyte with clustered, dull purple, erect, grooved, basally swollen stems carrying many, thin-textured, linear, pointed, erect, unequally bilobed apically, bright green, purple flushed leaves that blooms in the spring on a olive to purple green becoming red, pendent, clustered, 8 to 15 flowered inflorescence that arise from the nodes on the upper half of leafless stems carrying smaller flowers.
In winter the water and fertilizer should be reduced and only increased with the onset of new growth in the spring.
Synonyms Dendrobium rarum var. miscegeneum Dauncey 2003; Dendrobium rarum var. pelorium Dauncey 2003; Pedilonum rarum (Schltr.) Rauschert 1983
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*The Orchidaceae of German New Guinea Schlechter 1912/1985 drawing good; Orchids of Vanuatu Lewis & Cribb 1989 drawing/photo ok; Orchid Species Culture; Dendrobium Bakers 1996; Dendrobium and its Relatives Lavarack, Harris and Stocker 2000 photo ok; Flora Malesiana Orchids of New Guinea Vol II Shuiteman and de Vogel 2002
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