Species Information - Dendrobium polyschistum

Dendrobium polyschistum Schltr., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 1 (1912) 575; 21 (1923) t. 192, fig. 720.

Type: Schlechter 20279 (holo B, lost; iso AMES, BO, E, G, K, L, NSW); Schlechter 16682 (holo B, lost). Lam 1499 (holo L; iso BO).

Synonyms:

• Grastidium polyschistum (Schltr.) Brieger, in Schltr., Orchideen, ed. 3, I/A (1981) 653 ('polychistum').

Rhizome very short, roots elongated, filiform, flexuose, glabrous. Stems crowded, erect to patent, slender, 30 to 40 cm by 1.5 mm, many-leaved, not or sparsely branched, entirely covered by the leaf sheaths. Leaves narrowly linear, 5-7 by 0.15-0.25 cm, apex acute. Inflorescences laterally from the stem, short, 2-flowered; spathe laterally compressed, narrowly oblong. Floral bracts minute. Pedicel and ovary 0.9 cm long, subclavate, glabrous. Flowers c. 6 cm across. Dorsal sepal narrowly lanceolate, 3 cm long, apex elongated-acuminate. Lateral sepals obliquely narrowly lanceolate, lobe-like widened at the base, 3 cm long, apex elongated-acuminate; mentum oblongoid, 0.5 cm long, obtuse. Petals obliquely linear, a little shorter than the sepals, apex elongated-acuminate. Lip 3-lobed below the middle, curved, 1.1 cm long, cuneate at the base, with a median keel extending from the base to the middle which in front is split into narrow lobes, in the basal half with scattered short toothed crests, on the midlobe with many not very closely set subulate papillae; lateral lobes obliquely lanceolate, c. 0.3 cm long, acute; midlobe very broadly rhombic, 0.7 by 1 cm, at the base claw-like narrowed, margins deeply lacerate-fimbriate, apex short-acuminate. Column short, clinandrium 3-lobulate, the lateral lobules obliquely rhombic, serrulate, the median short, tooth-like; column-foot 0.5 cm long, below the apex with 2 elliptic swellings. Anther broadly quadrate, in front truncate and papillose.
(after Schlechter, 1912).

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