Species Information - Dendrobium elatum

Dendrobium elatum Schltr., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 1 (1912) 585; 21 (1928) t. 195, fig. 733.

Type: Schlechter 20152 (holo B, lost).

Synonyms:

• Grastidium elatum (Schltr.) Rauschert, Feddes Repert. 94 (1983) 449.

Rhizome very short, roots elongated, filiform, flexuose, glabrous. Stems crowded, erect, straight or almost so, slightly laterally compressed, up to 100 cm long, unbranched. Leaf sheaths rugulose. Leaves erect-patent, oblong-lanceolate, 12-16 by 3-4 cm, apex unequally obtusely bilobulate, coriaceous. Inflorescences lateral from the stem; peduncle hardly developed, 2-flowered; spathe short, densely verrucose along the margin. Pedicel and ovary 1.5 cm long, glabrous. Flowers c. 8 cm across. Dorsal sepal lanceolate, 4.3 cm long, apex subulate-elongated; outside with a thickened denticulate midrib. Lateral sepals obliquely lanceolate, widened at the base, 4.3 cm long, apex subulate-elongated; mentum 0.8 cm long, obtuse. Petals obliquely linear, a little shorter than the sepals, apex subulate-elongated. Lip 3-lobed in apical third, 1.5 by 1.2 cm, cuneate at the base, with a linear basal keel extending to the base of the midlobe, on the midlobe with three rows of warts; lateral lobes obliquely ovate, obtuse; midlobe much larger, semiorbicular, apiculate. Column short, rather thick, clinandrium 3-lobulate, the lateral lobules with truncate apices, the median minute, tooth-like; column-foot incurved, 0.8 cm long, at the apex with a plate-like bilobed callus. Anther helmet-shaped, in front truncate, glabrous.
(after Schlechter, 1912).

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