Oberonia brevispica Schltr., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 1 (1911) 160
Type: Schlechter 18479 (holo B, lost)
Epiphytic, creeping, small, to 8 cm high. Rhizome creeping, not much elongated; roots filiform, elongated, flexuose, glabrous. Stems 0.5-0.8 cm apart, short, densely 4-5-leaved, entirely hidden by the leaf-bases, up to 2.5 cm long. Leaves erect or suberect, linear, acute, usually falcate or subfalcate, glabrous, free part 2-5.5 cm long, at the base 0.3-0.4 cm wide. Inflorescence erect, carrying flowers up to the base, short, densely many-flowered, 1.5 -3 cm long, 0.3 cm diam. across the flowers. Floral bracts lanceolate, acuminate, margins lacerate-dentate, glabrous, dorsally keeled, usually about as long as the flowers. Flowers patent, minute, glabrous. Median sepal ovate, obtuse, almost 0.05 cm long. Lateral sepals obliquely broadly ovate, subacute, as long as the median sepal. Petals obliquely linear-ligulate, obtuse, towards the apex with irregular margins, about as long as the sepals. Lip a little longer than the sepals, at the base auriculate-reniform contracted, 0.05 cm wide, in apical half expanded into a suborbicular lobe which is bifid to above the middle. Column very short, rather thick, glabrous. Anther reniform, broadly obtuse. Ovary cylindrical, glabrous, including the pedicel almost 0.05 cm long. (After Schlechter, 1911-1914)
Colours: Flowers dark brown-red.
Habitat: Epiphyte in lowland forest; 150 m.
Flowering time in the wild: October.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 485-48M.JPG.
Cultivation: Warm growing epiphyte.