Oberonia urostachya Schltr., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 1 (1911) 148
Type: Schlechter 19330 (holo B, lost)
Epiphytic, spreading or pendent, several-stemmed, 20-40 cm high. Rhizome very short; roots filiform, elongated, flexuose, glabrous. Stems elongated, flexuose, entirely hidden by the leaf-bases, many-leaved. Leaves erect-patent or almost straight, obliquely triangular-lanceolate, acute or subobtuse, free part up to 1.5 cm [‘1.5 mm’] long, base up to 0.5 cm wide, often smaller. Inflorescence shortly pedunculate, slender, densely many-flowered, elongated, up to 10 cm long, towards the apex usually sterile, almost glabrous. Floral bracts lanceolate, acuminate, often as long as or slightly longer than the ovary. Flowers minute, patent, not resupinate, almost whorled, closely spaced, glabrous. Sepals ovate-oblong, obtuse, c. 0.08 cm long. Lateral sepals oblique. Petals obliquely linear, obtuse, margins irregular, as long as the sepals. Lip at the base long-auriculate, ligulate, bifid to near the middle, segments falcate-divergent, lanceolate-falcate, obtuse, sparsely subdentate, almost 0.2 cm long, at the base with a small horseshoe-shaped callus; basal auricles clasping the column, falcate-ligulate, obtuse, inside along the median keeled-thickened, 0.07 cm long. Column short, rather thick. Anther reniform-cucullate, obtuse. Ovary cylindrical, glabrous, including the pedicel 0.13 cm long. (After Schlechter, 1911-1914)
Colours: Flowers yellow, lip brown.
Habitat: Epiphyte in lowland forest; 300 m.
Flowering time in the wild: April.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 485-393M.JPG.
Cultivation: Warm growing epiphyte.