Species Information - Dendrobium multifolium

Dendrobium multifolium Schltr., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 1 (1912) 590; 21 (1928) t. 197, fig. 741.

Type: Schlechter 20263 (holo B, lost).

Synonyms:

• Grastidium multifolium (Schltr.) Rauschert, Feddes Repert. 94 (1983) 451.

Rhizome very short, roots elongated, filiform, flexuose, glabrous. Stems crowded, pendulous, slightly laterally compressed, up to 60 cm by 4 mm, very densely many-leaved, unbranched. Leaf sheaths entirely covering the stem. Leaves lanceolate-ligulate, 8-11 by 1.3-1.8 cm, apex sharply acute. Inflorescences arising laterally from the stem; peduncle hardly developed, 2-flowered, spathe short, laterally compressed, semiorbicular. Ovary 0.5 cm long, subsessile, cylindrical, glabrous. Flowers c. 2.5 cm across. Sepals apically incurved and slightly thickened. Dorsal sepal oblong, 1.4 cm long, apex obtuse. Lateral sepals obliquely falcate-oblong, a little widened at the base, 1.4 cm long, apex obtuse; mentum short, obtuse. Petals obliquely obovate-spathulate, a little shorter than the sepals, apex obtuse. Lip 3-lobed near the middle, 0.7 by 0.45 cm, with a low, somewhat flexuose basal keel extending to the base of the midlobe; lateral lobes small, obliquely oblong, obtuse; midlobe much larger, subquadrate-rhomboid, broadly obtuse. Column short, rather thick, clinandrium 3-lobulate, the lateral lobules rounded, the median tooth-like; column-foot short, near the apex with a low 3-lobulate callus. Anther quadrangular-cucullate, glabrous.
(after Schlechter, 1912).

---