Robiquetia serpentina (J.J.Sm.) Kocyan & Schuit. 2014
Comparison of the two side lobes of R glomerata above and R serpentine below
Photos by © Peter O'Byrne
Common Name The Snake Like Robiquetia
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Sabah and Kalamantan Borneo on small branches of understory trees in floodplain of riverine forests at elevations around 300 to 400 to 400 meters as a small to medium sized, hot growing epiphyte with short, slender, somewhat sinuous stems carrying 2 rows of horizontal, linear, tapering to an acute bilobed apex, green, often suffused with maroon leaves that blooms in the spring summer and fall on a short, descending, subsessile, often globular to subglobular, fine white haired, .08" [2 cm] long, crowded, to 25 flowered inflorescence.
The best diagnostic feature to separate this species from the very similar Robiquetia glomerata is the shape of the side lobe of the lip, R serpentina has a single notched side lobe, R glomerata has a profoundly 2 toothed side lobe.
Synonyms Malleola serpentina (J.J.Sm.) Schltr. 1913; *Saccolabium serpentinum J.J.Sm. 1904
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; A Checklist of the Orchids of Borneo Wood & Cribb 1994 as Malleola serpentina; Malesian Orchid Journal Vol 15 P.O'Byrne 2015 photo/drawing fide;
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