Dendrobium spectatissimum Rchb.f. 1876 SECTION Formosae

Photo by © Orchid Bliss Dave Wibawa and DC Orchid Flickr site

FAINT

Common Name The Best Dendrobium

Flower Size 4" [10 cm]

Found in Sabah Borneo in lower montane scrub forests low down on shrubby tree trunks in partial shade at elevations of 1500 to 1800 meters as a medium sized, cool growing epiphyte with erect, fractiflex stems carrying several oblong-elliptic, obtusely unequally bilobed apically, black hairy, spreading leaves with sulcate, black hairy sheaths that blooms in the spring on a very short, 2 flowered inflorescence arising from near the apex of the leafy stem carrying long-lasting, faintly fragrant flowers.

This specie has the largest flowers of any Bornean Dendrobium. The petals are curled tightly back in infancy and as the flowers evelop they turn forward to be at right angles to the lip and towards the flowers life the petals move forward and are parellel tothe lip.

Synonyms Dendrobium reticulatum J.J.Sm. 1914; Dendrobium speciosissimum Rolfe 1895

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchidaceae Monandre-Dendrobiinae Fr. Kraenzlin 1910; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Die Orchideen 2 Auflage Schlechter 1927; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Orchid Digest Vol 49 No 4 1985 photo hmm; The Plants of Mount Kinabalu Vol 2 Orchids Wood Beaman & Beaman 1993 photo fide; A Checklist of the Orchids of Borneo Wood & Cribb 1994; The Orchids of Borneo Vol 1 Chan, Shim, Lamb and Wood 1994 drawing/photo fide; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Orchid Species Culture Dendrobium Bakers 1996; Dendrobium and its Relatives Lavarack, Harris and Stocker 2000 photo fide; The Dendrobiums H. P. Wood 2006 photo fide; Malesian Orchid Journal Vol 6 2010 photo fide; The Orchids of Mount Kinabalu Vol 1 Wood, Beaman, Lamb, Chu Lun and Beaman 2011 drawing fide; The Orchids of Mount Kinabalu Vol 2 Wood, Beaman, Lamb, Chu Lun and Beaman 2011; A Guide to the Orchids of Mt Kinabalu J J Wood 2013 photo fide; Dendrobium of Borneo Wood 2014 photo/drawing fide; Genera Orchidacearum Vol 6 Epidendroidee Pt 3 Pridgeon, Cribb, Chase and Rasmussen 2014 drawing fide;

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