Oberonia kempfii Schltr., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 17 (1921) 370
Type: Kempf s.n. (border between German and English New Guinea, Waria region) (holo B, lost)
Epiphytic, [almost] stemless, small, c. 5 cm high. Rhizome very short; roots filiform, flexuose, slender, glabrous. Stem short, flexuose, usually 3-leaved, up to 1.5 cm long. Leaves erect-patent, equitant ligulate-ensiform, acute, 2-3.5 cm long, near the middle almost 0.5 cm wide. Inflorescence subsessile, erect, slender, densely many-flowered, with the flowers almost whorled, up to 3 cm long, 0.03 cm diam. across the flowers. Floral bracts narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, with irregular margins, as long as the flowers, almost patent. Flowers minute, not resupinate, glabrous, hardly more than 0.15 cm across. Sepals broadly elliptic, almost 0.08 cm long. Lateral sepals strongly oblique. Petals obliquely oblong-ligulate, obtuse, about as long as the sepals, entire. Lip in outline elliptic, near the middle 3-lobed, at the base slightly retuse-subcordate; lateral lobes obliquely triangular, obliquely and obtusely subacuminate, the very apex truncate; mid-lobe very broadly rhombic, apex very obtusely apiculate. Column short, rather thick, glabrous. Ovary slender, cylindrical, glabrous, almost 0.08 cm long. (After Schlechter, 1921)
Colours: Not recorded.
Habitat: Not recorded.
Flowering time in the wild: Not recorded.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea, Waria River area, exact locality not recorded.
Cultivation: Epiphyte. Requirements unknown.