Dendrobium chrysosema Schltr., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 58 (1923) 111.
Type: Ledermann 10917; 11557 (syn B, lost).
Rhizome very short. Stems crowded, patent, slightly flexuose, fleshy, unbranched, 35-50 cm long, many-leaved. Leaf sheaths entirely covering the stem, lined with prominent veins. Leaves erect-patent, lanceolate-elliptic, narrowed to the base, 10-17 by 1.7-3.7 cm, apex acuminate, thin-textured for a member of sect. Amblyanthus. Inflorescences racemose, subsessile, short, densely several-flowered. Floral bracts erect-patent, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, equalling or shorter than the flowers, apex acuminate. Pedicel and ovary 1.3 cm long, clavate, scaly-furfuraceous. Flowers c. 2.4 cm long, waxy. Sepals outside scaly-furfuraceous. Dorsal sepal oblong, 1.7 cm long, apex obtuse. Lateral sepals obliquely oblong, widened at the base, 1.7 cm long, apex obtuse; mentum semioblongoid-conical, 0.7 cm long, obtuse. Petals obliquely oblong-subspathulate, 1.6 cm long, apex obtuse. Lip pandurate-spathulate, shortly clawed at the base, 2.2 cm long, below the middle 0.8 cm wide, near middle 0.6 cm wide, in apical third 1.1 cm wide, in basal half obscurely 2-keeled, basal fourth with a semioblong, appressed, backwards-pointing, sparsely dentate appendage, in apical half concave, sparsely covered with conical, acute, backwards-pointing warts, apex obtuse, obtusely apiculate. Column 0.5 cm long, the margin just below the base on either side with a short tooth; column-foot 0.7 cm long, with a semioblong cavity.
(after Schlechter, 1923).
Colours: Flower white, outside tinged brownish, on the lip with a large yellow blotch.
Habitat: Epiphyte in lower montane forest. Altitude 1500 m.
Flowering time in the wild: February, May.
Distribution: New Guinea (endemic).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea (East Sepik Province: Hunstein Mountains, Schrader Mountains).
Cultivation: Intermediate growing epiphyte.