Oberonia oblonga

Oberonia oblonga R.S.Rogers, Trans. & Proc. Roy. Soc. South Australia 49 (1925) 255

Type: Lane-Poole 414 (holo BRI)

Plant pendent, about 24 cm long; roots filiform. Stem about 7.5 cm long, rather flattened, flexuose, entirely covered by the bases of the leaves. Leaves erect-patent, equitant, conduplicate towards the base, falcate, acuminate, rather thin, many-nerved, increasing in length from below upwards, uppermost leaf 15 cm long,-0.55 cm wide near the middle, covered by many glandular dots. Inflorescence slender, about 13 cm long, surpassing the leaves, many-flowered. Floral bracts narrow-lanceolate, acuminate, about 0.2 cm long, with minutely serrulate margins, slightly surpassing the ovary. Flowers minute, whorled, with the pedicel at right angles to the rachis, about 0.25 cm diam. Margins of the sepals and petals entire. Median sepal ovate, obtuse, about 0.1 by 0.06 cm. Lateral sepals similar and equal to the median sepal, but a little wider. Petals oblong, almost truncate, equal in length to the dorsal sepal, about 0.03 cm wide. Lip broadly oblong, about 0.15 by 0.1 cm, cordate-auriculate at the base, with the small auricles clasping the column, slightly narrower near the middle, widening a little towards the apex, deeply bilobed in front, with the lobes slightly divergent, oblong and truncate, blade slightly concave at the base, minutely dotted, with two parallel longitudinal lines extending to the middle. Column fleshy, very short. Ovary with pedicel rather stout, about 0.18 cm long. (After Rogers, 1925)

Colours: Flowers brown.

Habitat: Epiphyte in montane forest; 1800 m.

Flowering time in the wild: February.

Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).

Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 485-256M.JPG.

Cultivation: Cool growing epiphyte.

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