Oberonia phleoides Schltr., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 1 (1911) 173
Type: Schlechter 17315 (holo B, lost; iso BO, L)
Epiphytic, several-stemmed, up to 14 cm high. Rhizome very short; roots filiform, elongated, flexuose, glabrous. Stems erect or suberect, laxly 4-5-leaved, hidden by the leaf-bases, indistinctly flexuose, up to 9 cm long. Leaves erect-patent, linear, acute or subacute, 2.5-7.5 cm long, at the base 0.2-0.5 cm wide. Inflorescence densely many-flowered, cylindrical, carrying flowers up to the base, up to 5 cm long, 0.4 cm diam. across the flowers. Floral bracts lanceolate, acuminate, with coarsely dentate margins, outside sparsely muriculate, almost as long as the ovary. Flowers very small, patent. Sepals broadly elliptic, obtuse, outside sparsely papillose-muricate, 0.08 cm long. Lateral sepals oblique. Petals oblong-ligulate, obtuse, towards the apex with irregularly serrulate margins, glabrous, a little shorter than the sepals. Lip 0.1 cm long, above the middle 0.1 cm wide, at the base shortly auriculate, quadrate; auricles with minutely denticulate margins. Lip glabrous, in apical half with very minutely denticulate margins, above the base slightly constricted, then towards the apex expanded into a reniform, bilobed blade, the lobes semiorbicular, with a short, subobtuse sinus. Column very short, rather thick, glabrous. Anther subreniform, obtuse. Ovary cylindrical, muriculate-papillose, c. 0.1 cm long. (After Schlechter, 1911-1914)
Colours: Flowers light brown.
Habitat: Epiphyte in rainforest; 440 to 600 m.
Flowering time in the wild: February.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 485-279M.JPG.
Cultivation: Warm growing epiphyte.