Species Information - Dendrobium spiculatum

Dendrobium spiculatum Schuit., in Schuiteman, A. & J.F. Wanma. New and noteworthy Orchid Species from the Arfak Mountains, West Papua Province, Indonesia. Malesian Orchid Journal 20 (2017) 84, fig. 21-24

Type: Schuiteman et al. 2014-6 (holo BO; iso K, MAN)

Synonyms:

Epiphytes or terrestrials, herbaceous. Roots c. 0.1 cm diam., branching; tips orange. Stems tufted, prostrate­ascending (in shade) to erect (exposed), slender, not or sparsely branching, 12-24 by 0.47 cm, tapering towards the apex and almost moniliform when exposed, thinner and more uniformly thick in shade, flexuose, many-leaved; internodes 0.6-1.5 cm long. Leaves suberect, not in one plane, deciduous, narrowly ovate-oblong, 1.4-2.6 by 0.3-0.7 cm, coriaceous; leaf sheaths tubular, glabrous except the nerves sparsely papillose; margins smooth; apex obtuse, minutely mucronate. lnflorescences laterally from the upper half of the leafless stems, very short, 2-4-flowered; peduncle c. 0.5 cm long, enveloped by c. 3 membranous, imbricate, tubular scale leaves; floral bracts cupular, broadly ovate, c. 0.4 by 0.2 cm, with acuminate apex, membranous, sparsely papillose. Pedicel and ovary clavate, c. 1.9 cm long, terete, sparsely covered with conical or cylindrical, often somewhat incurved papillae up to 0.06 cm long. Flower c. 2 cm long, bright orange, patent or pendulous, not opening widely; sepals ababyially covered with conico­ cylindrical papillae up to c. 0.7 mm long, more densely so towards the apex, sparsely on the mentum. Dorsal sepal elliptic, 7.0 by 4.3 mm, obtuse, 3-nerved at base, 5-nerved near the middle. Lateral sepals obliquely ligulate, 0.7 (along upper margin) or 1.9 (along lower margin) cm long; apex obtuse; 5-nerved; mentum in lateral view conical-cylindrical, c. 1.4 cm long its closed apical tubular part 0.3 cm long, with obtuse apex. Petals oblong, 0.7 by 0.24 cm; margins to the apex finely denticulate, apex obtuse; nerves branching, near the middle 3-nerved. Lip extending to the column-apex, when flattened spathulate 1.85 by 0.78 cm, in basal 1.1 cm adnate to the column-foot, ecallose; apical part hood-like, 0.32 cm deep, indistinctly 3-pleated; apical margin truncate, finely irregularly denticulate-fimbriate. Column short and stout, 0.28 by 0.43 cm column-foot linear, c. 1.2 by 0.16 cm; stigma large, transversely elliptic, its lower margin with 2 low, broad teeth, rostellum and scraper truncate; back margin of clinandrium with a slender, 0.1 cm long tooth and two slightly shorter lateral lobes; anther helmet-shaped, 0.21 cm wide, minutely papillose-hairy, with truncate apex; pollinia narrowly oblong in outline, 0.16 by 0.04 cm, arranged in two pairs. Fruit not seen.
(after Schuiteman & Wanma, 2017)

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