!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 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 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 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; Flora of Malaysia Vol 1 Holttum 1953; 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; 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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