!Oberonia iridifolia [Roxb.] Lindley 1830 Photo courtesy of Jay Pfahl

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Common Name The Iris-Like Leaf Oberonia

Flower Size less than 1/8" [less than 4 mm]

Found in Hainan China, Assam, Bangladesh, Eastern Himalayas, India, Nepal, Andaman Islands, Myanamar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, the Philippines, New Guinea and Sulawesi at elevations of 10 to 200 meters as a pendulous growing, small sized, hot to cool growing epiphyte that has a clustered, short, leafy stem enveloped by 3 to 4, fleshy, distichous, fan shaped, iridiform, acute, flat, conduplicate and clasping as well as articulate to the imbricate, compressed leaf bases from which a 10" [15 to 25 cm] long inflorescence arising from the apex of the fan-shaped growth and has a rat-tail shape with elliptic, erose floral bracts and densely to laxly many flowers occuring in the fall and winter.

Synonyms *Cymbidium iridifolium Roxb. 1832; Iridorchis iridifolia (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Malaxis denticulata (Wight) Rchb.f. 1861; Malaxis iridifolia (Lindl.) Rchb. f. 1861; Oberonia brevifolia (Hook.f.) Panigrahi 1999; Oberonia denticulata Wight 1851; Oberonia denticulata var. brevifolia (Hook.f.) S.Misra 1989; Oberonia iridifolia var. brevifolia Hook.f. 1890; Oberonia iridifolia var denticulata Hk. f., Santapau, Fernandes and Kapadia 1958; Oberonia mucronata (D.Don) Ormerod & Seidenf. 1997; Stelis mucronata D.Don 1825

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list as O mucronata, IPNI ; The Orchids of Burma Grant 1895/95; Die Orchideen Von Java J.J.Sm. 1905; Flora of Malaysia Vol 1 Holttum 1953; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1959 photo; Orchidiana Philipiniana Vol 1 Valmayor 1984; The Orchids of Java Comber 1990; The Orchids of Penninsular Malaysia and Singapore Seidenfaden 1992; A Checklist of the Orchids of Borneo Wood & Cribb 1994; The Orchids of Sumatra Comber 2001; Orchid Flora Of Kamrup District Assam Iswar Chandra Barua 2001 as O denticulata; Beautiful Orchids of Nepal Rajbhandari & Bhattarai 2001 as O denticulata; Lindleyana Vol 17 No 1 2002; Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002 as Oberonia mucronata; Flora Malesiana Orchids of the Philippines Vol I Agoo, Shuiteman and de Vogel 2003;

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