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Dendrobium  Sw.

IV  Dendeobium section Haerbacea Kraenzl. 1910
Features : 

  • Pseudobulbs with multiple upcurving linear to fusiform branches 

  • Roots smooth

  • Leaves acuminate, present on terminal branches or branchlets only, deciduous before flowering.

  • Inflorescence terminal, sometimes lateral, short recemes, upto 5 flowered , on leafless branches  

  • Flowers small, with prominent lip & deflexed saccate mentum                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

This section is represented by single species in Sindhudurg district 

Dendrobium herbaceum Lindl.

In Edwards's Bot. Reg. 26(Misc.): 69 (1840);

  • Callista herbacea (Lindl.) Kuntze in Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 654 (1891)

  • Large, pendulous or erect epiphytic herbs. 

Ecology: This species is endemic to India Epiphytic orchid found growing on Diospyros malbarica plant in evergreen forest 600m

 

This specimen is observed in Hirnyakeshi 

Pseudobulbs 30-90 cm long, much branched, 7-15 mm thick, thin at the base, thickening up wards; primary ones naked; internodes 3.5 cm long, deep purple-brown, or brown, or. brown-yellow, shining and polished, deeply ridged and furrowed; lateral branches leafy or not at the time of flowering, green or yellowish green, sheathed.


Leaves 3-11 X 0.4-1.3-cm, sessile, sheathing at the. base, caducous, alternate, distichous, linear-oblong or linear lanceolate, acute or subobtuse, entire, glabrous. Inflorescence appearing after leaf fall, short, 2-5 flowered, terminal. Peduncles 7-15 mm long, brownish, slender, glabrous, sheathed at the base; sheaths very small, membranous, oblong, subacute, entire, translucent, glabrous

Flowers 7 X 10 mm, greenish white, pedicellate, bracteate.


Bracts 3 x 1 mm, persistent, membranous, translucent, semi-amplexicaul, brownish white, ovate-oblong or oblong, acute or subobtuse, entire, glabrous, 1 -nerved. 


Pedicels with ovary 12 mm long, about 0.5 mm in diarn., pale green, glabrous. 

Sepals greenish white, oblong-lanceolate, sub acute, with a minute mucro just below the apex, entire, glabrous, 3-5 nerved ; dorsal sepal 7 x 2.5 mm ; lateral ones 7x 2.5 mm, 4 mm broad at the base, subfalcate, connate along the foot, forming the mentum
mentum 3-4 mm long, broadly funnel-shaped, rounded, enclosing the lip at the base

Petals 6 x 2 mm, greenish white, linear or linear-oblong, acute, entire, glabrous, 3-5-nerved. 


Lip 5x 2.5 mm, greenish white, curved at the base, oblong-ovate in general outline, constricted some what below the middle, entire, 3-5-nerved, obscurely 3-lobed; the lateral lobes narrow, obsolete, slightly turned upwards along the margins; terminal lobe ovate or ovate-triangular, obtuse. 

​Column 1x 1mm, greenish white, the lateral arms produced above into broad subentire obtuse wings, which completely cover the anther at the back except for a narrow linear-oblong space; from the base of the opening a short, filiform process is given out to which the back of the anther is attached; foot 2-3 mm long, pale green, curved, obtuse.

 
Anther white 1.25 x 1 mm, oblong-suborbicular, retuse.

 

Pollinia 4, yellow oblong
 

Stigmatic surface, green, rounded, deep-seated in the column; rostellum white, narrowly transversely, oblong. 

Capsule 1.8x0.4 cm, narrowly fusiform, broad at the apex, sharply tapering at the base into a long pedicel, brownish green, some what 3-angled with yellowish ribs.


Leaves: June to September.

 

Flowering: October.

 

Fruiting: November to April.

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