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Dendrobium ianthinum
Dendrobium ianthinum Schuit. & Puspita, J. Orchideenfr. 12, 2(2005) 165, fig., map, photographs
Type: Type: Kebun Raya Bogor cult. B 200009131 (Entim Patimah 222). (holo BO; iso L)
Synonyms:
Roots thick, c. 0.3 cm diameter. Rhizome short. Stems crowded, erect, at the base terete, higher up slightly laterally compressed, 50-60 cm long, the basal 18-28 cm covered with soon-decaying sheaths, the upper 22-42 cm with leaves 1-1.3 cm apart; internodes 1.5-3 cm long. Leaf sheaths tubular, laterally compressed, 0.35-0.45 cm wide, apex truncate. Leaves distichous, at almost right angles to the stem, all in one plane twisted to one side; blade narrowly elliptic, 5.3-7.2 by 1-2 cm; apical 0.4-0.6 cm rather abruptly narrowed, conduplicate and somewhat twisted, unequally narrowly bilobed, the lobes obtuse. Inflorescences laterally, in the leaf axil but sometimes 1 cm apart, very short, 2-flowered. Spathe laterally compressed, 0.2-0.3 by 0.3-0.5 cm; top broadly rounded. Pedicel with ovary 1.5 cm long, terete. Flowers c. 1.5 cm across; sepals and petals reflexed in apical half. Median sepal ovate-oblong, 1.1-1.5 by 0.5-0.69 cm, 7-nerved; apex subacute. Lateral sepals obliquely ovate-triangular, 1.1-1.48 by 0.85-0.95 cm, 7-nerved; mentum 0.57 cm long, obtuse; apex subacute. Petals somewhat obliquely elliptic, 1.1-1.42 by 0.45-0.6 cm, 5-nerved: apex subacute. Lip near the middle 3-lobed, when flattened 0.97 by 0.74 cm, with a thick, plate-like, longitudinal basal keel extending to just beyond the base of the midlobe, at the base on either side of the keel with an irregular, c. 0.18 cm long callus, along the margins of the lateral lobes and on the basal part of the midlobe with irregular, transverse thickenings; lateral lobes erect, almost rectangular, with irregularly crenulate margins and rounded-truncate apex; midlobe much larger, broadly cuneate-rectangular, 0.52 by 0.5-0.63 cm, with irregularly crenulate margins, apical part recurved, when flattened with a projecting, triangular, acute apex. Column broad, 0.45 cm long; apex truncate except for the short, rounded midlobe of the clinandrium; stigma large; rostellum short, swollen; column-foot at an acute angle to the ovary, 0.57 cm long, broadly linear, slightly incurved. Anther helmet-shaped, 0.2 cm wide; front margin truncate, few-dentate; pollinia narrowly oblongoid, 0.17 cm long. Fruit not seen.
(after Schuiteman & Puspita 2005)
Colours: Roots white, tips green. Leaves green. Sepals and petals creamy yellow, inside in apical two thirds with numerous fine red-brown spots arranged in four longitudinal bands. Lip whitish, lateral lobes with a dark bluish violet blotch on the front margin and with numerous fine irregular bluish violet spots and streaks inside, midlobe with dark bluish violet margins, in the basal half with a triangular patch of fine irregular bluish violet spots, central keel whitish with two violet edges, basal callosities yellow with red-brown markings. Column creamy yellow, dorsally tinged red-brown, column-foot inside with dark bluish violet markings; anther creamy white. (Flowers apparently not fragrant).
Epiphyte in lowland rainforest consisting of Barringtonia, Pometia pinnata, Calophyllum, Canarium, Palaquium, etc. Altitude 100 m.
New Guinea (endemic).
Papua. See map
Warm growing epiphyte.
- Family Orchidaceae
- Subfamily Epidendroideae
- Tribe Dendrobieae
- Subtribe Dendrobiinae
- Genus Dendrobium
- Section Grastidium
- Dendrobium ianthinum
Dendrobium ianthinum Schuit. & Puspita belongs to subgroup Tridentifera of Section Grastidium (informally designated by Schlechter, 1911-1914), consisting of species allied to D. tridentiferum Lindl. Its nearest relative appears to be D. exaltatum Schltr. This is a much larger plant with leaves twice as long and, with larger flowers, and a lip that lacks the complicated basal callus on either side of the central keel and has only two small teeth at the base of the central keel.
An old colour slide in the slide collection of the Hortus Botanicus, Leiden indicates that D. ianthinum Schuit. & Puspita was once in cultivation in Leiden, probably around 1960. No material was preserved, and no annotations were present, but the specimen was without doubt collected somewhere in West New Guinea.
A flowerless dried specimen, Zippelius 13, present in the collection of Naturalis in Leiden, is indistinguishable from D. ianthinum. It was collected by Alexander Zippelius (also spelt Zipelius) somewhere on the southwest coast of New Guinea in 1828.
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Dendrobium ianthinum
Dendrobium ianthinum Schuit. & Puspita, plant habit and flower analysis, drawing Mutsuko Nakajoma in J. Orchideenfr. 12, 2(2005) 165, fig.
Dendrobium ianthinum
Dendrobium ianthinum Schuit. & Puspita, plant habit and flower analysis, drawing Mutsuko Nakajoma in J. Orchideenfr. 12, 2(2005) 165, fig., rearranged