Dendrobium secundum (Blume) Lindl., Edwards's Bot. Reg. (1829) t. 1291.
Basionym: Pedilonum secundum.
Stems crowded, stout, terete, grooved, slightly flexuose, many-leaved, up to 1 m and more long though usually less, 1.5 cm wide, internodes to 3.5 cm long. Leaves soon deciduous, oblong to lanceolate, c. 10 by 3.5-4.3 cm, weekly keeled along midvein below, apex obliquely obtuse. Inflorescence arising laterally from the bare stems, densely many-flowered, with the flowers all pointing in the same direction (secund), to c. 11 cm long, peduncle c. 2 cm long, rachis angular. Bracts triangular, 0.3 cm long, acute. Pedicel and ovary 1.4 cm long, near the apex shortly and densely ciliate. Flowers c. 1.8 cm long, lasting a few weeks. Sepals ovate-triangular, 0.75 cm by 3.7 mm, 5-nerved, acuminate; the lateral sepals decurrent on the column-foot, front margins connate, forming a spur-like, somewhat inflated, 0.75 cm long obtuse mentum. Petals lanceolate, 0.75 cm by 2.3 mm, 3-nerved, subacute. Lip entire, linear-spathulate, channelled, 1.6 cm long, with its basal part for 0.5 cm adnate to the column-foot, forming a spur, close to the entrance of the spur with a membranous, V-shaped appendage, margins in apical part incurved, apex subacute. Column 0.35 cm long, stout, stelidia thick, thinner at the margins. Anther cucullate, short and densely hairy at apex, column-foot curved, parallel with the ovary, channelled, 0.9 cm long; stigma long and narrow.
(after Smith, 1905).
Colours: Flower bright magenta, lip in apical part orange.
Habitat: Epiphyte in lowland rainforest.
Flowering time in the wild: Not known.
Distribution: India, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Sulawesi, Lesser Sunda Islands, the Philippines, New Guinea.
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua (Waigeo Island).
Notes: Dendrobium secundum is a common species in Southeast Asia, but as far as we know it has not yet been found on the island of New Guinea, only nearby on Waigeo Island. The elongated and very dense racemes of magenta, orange-lipped flowers that all face the same direction are characteristic.
Cultivation: Warm growing epiphyte, prefers light position.