Diplocaulobium ischnophyton

Diplocaulobium ischnophyton (Schltr.) A.D.Hawkes, Orchid Digest 27 (1963) 251.

Basionym: Dendrobium ischnophyton.

Rhizome very short. Pseudobulbs crowded, 1-leaved, very slender cylindrical, obclavate-thickened at the base, 5-14 cm long, at the base c. 0.4 cm wide, in upper part c. 0.1 cm wide. Leaves erect, narrowly linear, 9-13 by 0.15-0.25 cm, apex obtuse, the very tip short-bidentate. Inflorescences 1-flowered. Pedicel and ovary 2.7 cm long, clavate, slender, glabrous. Flower c. 4 cm across. Dorsal sepal at the base lanceolate, narrowing to the elongated apex, 2.2 cm long. Lateral sepals widened at the base, narrowing to the elongated apex, 2.2 cm long, mentum semioblongoid-triangular, 0.5 cm long, obtuse. Petals at the base obliquely linear-lanceolate, narrowing to the elongated apex, a little shorter than the sepals. Lip weakly 3-lobed below the middle, pandurate in outline, 1.8 cm long, 0.35 cm wide below the middle, in the narrowest part 0.15 cm wide, cuneate at the base, margins subundulate, with two keels extending from the base to the basal third of the midlobe, the keels subparallel at the base, converging below the middle; in the centre of the midlobe with a soft, mealy-tomentose, lanceolate callus; midlobe lanceolate-elliptic, 0.7 by 0.2 cm, acute. Column short; column-foot 0.5 cm long.
(after Schlechter, 1923).

Colours: Sepals and petals pale rose-red, lip white.

Habitat: Epiphyte in hill forest. Altitude 850 m.

Flowering time in the wild: October.

Distribution: New Guinea (endemic).

Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea (East Sepik Province: Etappenberg).

Notes: In habit similar to Diplocaulobium arachnoideum, but with a rather different lip.

Cultivation: Intermediate growing epiphyte.

%LABEL% (%SOURCE%)