Dendrobium cochleatum J.J.Sm., Bull. Dép. Agric. Indes Néerl. 19 (1908) 15; Nova Guinea 8, 1 (1909) 81, t. 27, fig. 89.
Type: Versteeg 1360 (syn BO, isosyn L); 1561 (syn BO, isosyn L).
Rhizome short. Stems crowded, elongated, flexuose, branching with age, to at least 80 cm long, many-leaved, internodes 1.2-2.5 cm long. Leaf sheaths tubular, a little longer than the internodes, verrucose. Leaves ovate-lanceolate to ovate-oblong, 3.5-6 by 0.7-1.3 cm, keeled below, margins minutely serrulate near the apex, apex acute, mucronate. Inflorescences arising laterally from the stem, racemose, very short; rachis 0.6-1 cm long, verrucose, densely 3-8-flowered. Floral bracts triangular, 0.7 by 0.38 cm, apex acuminate, concave, outside densely verrucose, 3-nerved. Pedicel and ovary 1.7 cm long, clavate, grooved, verrucose, minutely squamulose. Flowers 1.7 cm long, sepals outside verruculose. Dorsal sepal ovate, 0.4 cm by 2.8 mm, concave, 3-nerved, apex obtuse. Lateral sepals strongly obliquely widened at the base, decurrent on the column-foot, with the free part triangular, 0.5 cm by 6.5 mm, keeled outside, front margins long connate, apex obtuse; mentum large, conical, 1.3 cm long, 0.5-0.55 cm wide, in front inflated, acuminate, obtuse. Petals obliquely elliptic, 0.3 cm by 2.5 mm, laterally appressed to the ovary, concave, outside verrucose at the apex, 3-nerved, margins erose-serrulate in apical part, apex broadly obtuse. Lip spathulate-cochleate, parallel with the column-foot, clawed, 1.35 cm long, 0.4 cm wide in natural position, when flattened 0.73 cm wide, claw 0.65 cm long; 5-nerved, apical part abruptly incurved, strongly concave-cucullate, in front undulate, apex truncate, fimbriate-serrulate, outside verruculose. Column 0.3 cm long, dorsally compressed, clinandrium fimbriate-serrulate, with truncate auricles, stigma transversely elliptic; column-foot narrowly linear, 1.3 cm long, almost straight, convex, near the apex with a longitudinal groove. Anther cucullate, in front flattened, apex truncate. Pollinia oblong, with a transversely oblong viscid mass.
(after Smith, 1909).
Colours: Flower orange-red or rose-red.
Habitat: Epiphyte in lowland forest.
Flowering time in the wild: July, August, October.
Distribution: New Guinea (endemic).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua (Merauke Regency: Lorentz River).
Notes: One of the few species in which the sepals are conspicuously verrucose outside.
Cultivation: Warm growing epiphyte.