Species Information - Dendrobium caudiculatum

Dendrobium caudiculatum (M.A.Clem. & D.L.Jones) Schuit. & de Vogel, Blumea 48 (2003) 509

Type: Canberra Nat. Bot. Garden cult., 22 Feb. 1993 (Clements 7284) (holo CANB, iso NCBG)

Synonyms:

• Dockrillia caudiculata M.A.Clem. & D.L.Jones, Lasianthera 1 (1996) 10, pl. 4B & C.
  - Type: Canberra Nat. Bot. Garden cult., 22 Feb. 1993 (Clements 7284) (holo CANB, iso NCBG).

Pendulous epiphytic herb forming sparse clumps 1.5-2 m long. Aerial roots absent or rare. Stems straight, 2-15 cm by 2-3 mm. Leaves linear-terete, 10-50 cm by 3-5 mm, pendulous. Racemes 10-15 cm long, wiry, arising singly from the nodes at the leaf base, bearing 10-20 flowers. Pedicels 8-10 mm long, filiform. Ovary 1-2 mm long, hardly developed at anthesis. Flowers about 2.5 cm across, opening widely, not self pollinating. Dorsal sepal narrowly oblong-elliptic, 10-14 mm by 2-2.5 mm, erect, apex acuminate. Lateral sepals asymmetrically oblong-lanceolate, 10-14 mm by 2-2.5 mm, strongly falcate, widely divergent, apex acuminate. Petals narrowly linear-obovate 12-14 mm by c. 0.8 mm, widely spreading, often bent near the acute apex. Lip curved in the proximal two-thirds, with midlobe abruptly recurved, 10-13 mm by 34 mm when flattened; lateral lobes more or less oblong to oblong-elliptical, much longer than the midlobe, 6-7.5 mm by c. 1.8 mm, incurved; midlobe almost quadrate, 3.5-5 mm by 3.55 mm, thin-textured, the margins irregularly sinuate, and apex acuminately caudate, often curved to one side; callus of three tall narrow ridges, intensely and irregularly sinuate in the basal quarter, extending to the centre of the mid-lobe. Column 2.5-3 mm by 2-2.5 mm, porrect from the end of the ovary, glabrous, dorsally lacerate to erose; column foot 4.5-5.5 mm by c. 1.5 mm, at about 90 degrees to the column, shallowly channelled, glabrous. Stigma oblong c. 1.2 mm by 1.8 mm, deeply sunken. Anther c. 1.5 mm by 1.5 mm, with a short, decurved, lacerate rostrum. Pollinia clavate, falcate, c. 1 mm long, waxy. Capsule not seen.
(after Clements & Jones, 1996).

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