Dendrobium agrostophylloides

Dendrobium agrostophylloides Schltr., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 1 (1912) 633; 21 (1928) t. 213, fig. 805.

Type: Schlechter 1696 (holo B, lost) (the cited number is certainly missing a digit).

Rhizome very short, roots elongated, filiform, flexuose, glabrous. Stems crowded, erect, laterally compressed, unbranched, 50-70 cm by 5-6 mm, densely many-leaved. Leaf sheaths entirely covering the stem, ancipitous. Leaves erect to suberect, linear-ligulate, 8-10 by 1-1.4 cm, base cuneate, apex obtuse, unequally bilobulate. Inflorescences arising laterally from the stem, 1-flowered, sessile. Pedicel and ovary 0.8 cm long, glabrous. Flower not resupinated, c. 1.5 cm across. Dorsal sepal oblong, 1.2 cm long, apex obtuse. Lateral sepals obliquely oblong, widened at the base, 1.2 cm long, apex obtuse; mentum 0.3 cm long, obtuse. Petals obliquely oblong-ligulate, a little shorter than the sepals, apex obtuse. Lip 3-lobed in apical third, 0.75 by 0.35 cm, hypochile subcuneate-oblong, with a small backwards-pointing conical basal callus; lateral lobes short, subtruncate-obtuse; epichile about as wide as the hypochile, very broadly ovate, margins verruculose above, obtuse. Column short; column-foot oblong-ligulate, 0.3 cm long. Anther quadrangular-cucullate, glabrous, in front truncate.
(after Schlechter, 1912).

Colours: Flower brown-red to dark cherry-red, shiny.

Habitat: Epiphyte in lower montane forest. Altitude 1000 m.

Flowering time in the wild: December.

Distribution: New Guinea (endemic).

Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea (Madang Province: Kani Mountains).

Cultivation: Intermediate growing epiphyte.

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