Dendrobium leptophyton

Dendrobium leptophyton Schuit. & de Vogel inedit. (to be published in Blumea).

Basionym: Dockrillia delicata.

Pendulous epiphyte forming sparse clumps to about 1 m long. Aerial roots absent. Stems straight, 2-8 cm by 1-1.5 mm. Leaves linear-terete, 2-10 cm by 3-4 mm, erect to pendulous. Racemes 26 cm long, wiry, arising singly from nodes at the leaf base, bearing 5-8 flowers. Pedicel 12-15 mm long, filiform. Ovary 1-2 mm long, hardly developed at anthesis. Flowers about 15 mm across, not opening widely, fragrant. Dorsal sepal oblong, 6-7 mm by c. 3 mm, erect to obliquely-erect, subobtuse. Lateral sepals asymmetrically oblong-obovate, widely divergent; apex subacute. Petals very narrowly obovate, porrect to obliquely-erect; apex subacute. Lip curved in basal two-thirds, with midlobe spreading nearly at right angles, 1-1.2 cm by 4-4.5 mm when flattened; lateral lobes more or less elliptic, 7-8 mm by c. 1.3 mm, incurved; mid-lobe ovate-elliptic, 3.5-4 mm by 4-4.5 mm, thin-textured, with margins strongly sinuate-crispate, and apex broadly obtuse to emarginate; callus of five tall narrow ridges, becoming sinuate on the mid-lobe, the central three ridges extending to the lip apex. Column 3-3.5 mm by c. 2 mm, porrect from the end of the ovary, glabrous; column foot 4.5-5.5 mm by c. 1 mm, at about 120 degrees to the column, shallowly channelled, glabrous. Stigma oblong, c. 3 mm by 1.5 mm, deeply sunken. Anther c. 1 mm by 1 mm, with a short, decurved, lacerate rostrum. Pollinia clavate, falcate 0.8-0.9 mm long, waxy. Fruit not seen.
(after Clements & Jones, 1996).

Colours: Leaves dark green. Flower cream to white with some faint reddish markings towards the centre. Lip cream with minute red dots and irregular lines towards the margins. Pollinia orange.

Habitat: Epiphyte on Araucaria cunninghamii. Altitude 900 to 2000 m.

Flowering time in the wild: Not known. Flowers last 3 to 5 days.

Distribution: New Guinea (endemic).

Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea (Morobe Province).

Map: LEPTOMAP.JPG [Dendrobium leptophyton Schuit. & de Vogel, distribution map.]

Cultivation: Intermediate growing epiphyte.

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