Dendrobium ceraceum Schltr., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 58 (1923) 111.
Type: Ledermann 8254 (holo B, lost).
Rhizome very short. Stems crowded, patent, slender, unbranched, 45-60 cm long, densely many-leaved. Leaf sheaths entirely covering the stem. Leaves erect-patent, lanceolate-ligulate, 6-9 by 1.1-1.7 cm, base oblique, apex obliquely acute. Inflorescences racemose, subsessile, short, 4-6-flowered. Floral bracts elliptic, about as long as the ovary, apex subcucullate-concave, obtuse, outside furfuraceous. Ovary 1 cm long, fusiform-cylindrical, furfuraceous. Flowers c. 2 cm long, waxy, outside shortly scaly-furfuraceous. Dorsal sepal elliptic, 1.2 cm long, apex obtuse. Lateral sepals obliquely elliptic, much widened at the base, 1.2 cm long, apex obtuse; mentum conical, 0.8 cm long, obtuse. Petals obliquely obovate-spathulate, almost as long as the sepals, margins subdentate-irregular in upper half, apex obtuse. Lip 3-lobed in apical third, obovate-spathulate in outline, 1.6 by 0.7 cm, convex in the centre, in basal third with an oblong, appressed, backwards-pointing, lacerate-dentate appendage; lateral lobes small, inconspicuous, obtuse; midlobe reniform, glabrous, margins near the base denticulate, apex apiculate. Column 0.4 cm long; column-foot 0.8 cm long, at the apex with an obovate cavity.
(after Schlechter, 1923).
Colours: Flower white, outside flushed with brown.
Habitat: Epiphyte in lowland forest. Altitude 200-300 m.
Flowering time in the wild: August.
Distribution: New Guinea (endemic).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea (East Sepik Province: Hunstein range).
Cultivation: Warm growing epiphyte.