Dendrobium Sw.
V. Dendrobium section Dendrobium Lindley 1844
Features:
Roots glabrous.
Stems or pseudobulbs usually cane-like, fleshy or rarely wiry, usually many-leaved, branching or not, less often with distinct, ovoid to fusiform, one- to few-leaved pseudobulbs.
Leaves usually short-lived, with or without a tubular sheath at the base.
Inflorescences usually short, pendulous when elongate, one- to many-flowered, appearing laterally or apically from leafy or leafless stems, most often from the leafless stem of the previous year.
Flowers often showy; mentum short, chin-like or less often narrowly conical.
Labellum usually rigidly attached to apex of column foot, not adnate to it, entire or weakly lobed, adaxially often darker coloured in the centre, often densely and finely pubescent, often with finely fringed margins often with a linear, basal claw, without multiple keels but sometimes with a single callus or with a single longitudinal keel.
This section is represented by 3 species in Sindhudurg district
Dendrobium macrostachyum Lindl.
In Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl.: 78 (1830);
Callista macrostachya (Lindl.) Kuntze in Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 655 (1891)
Callista stuartii (F.M.Bailey) Kuntze in Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 655 (1891)
Callista tetrodon (Rchb.f. ex Lindl.) Kuntze in Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 655 (1891)
Dendrobium gamblei King & Pantl. in J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, Pt. 2, Nat. Hist. 66: 584 (1897);
Dendrobium stuartii F.M.Bailey in Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensland 1: 12 (1884)
Dendrobium tetrodon Rchb.f. ex Lindl. in J. Proc. Linn. Soc., Bot. 3: 10 (1858)
Dendrobium tetrodon var. vanvuurenii J.J.Sm. in Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg, sér. 3, 2: 84 (1920);
Dendrobium viridicatum Ridl. in J. Straits Branch Roy. Asiat. Soc. 39: 72 (1903); Dendrobium whiteanum T.E.Hunt in Queensland Naturalist 14: 60 (1951)
Pendulous epiphytes.
Ecology: Epiphytic orchid found growing on Caryea arborea plant in evergreen & semievergreen forest above 600m altitutude
This orchid is observed near Amboli on Amboli Ajara road
Pseudobulbs leafless at the time of flowering slender, 7- 50 cm. long, more or less uniform, internodes 2-2.8 cm long, 3·5 mm thick, slightly swollen at the nodes, purplish brown with whitish longitudinal streaks.
Leaves alternate, distichous, somewhat coriaceous, on drying becoming membranous, pale olive green, completely and closely sheathing the node below, 2-9 x 0.3-2.5 cm, narrowly lanceolate, narrowly lanceolate to ovate-Ianceolate, acute, entire, usually with 3-5 fairly prominent nerves.
Inflorescence solitary or in cymes; at first 3 buds are produced in basipetal succession, indicating distinct dichasial cyme, out of which generally 1 or 2, rarely all 3 mature, peduncle 2-3mm long, terete, thin, brown, sheathed.
FIower 2.5 x 2 cm, at first pale green, turning creamy yellow with age faintly perfumed on opening, pedicellate.
Bracts 2-3 X 1 mm, persistant, membranous, ovate, pale brown, 1-nerved.
Pedicel with ovary1.5-1.8 cm long, curved, pale green above, tinged mauve below.
Sepals and Petals 1.5-1.7x0.6-0.8cm,similar, not much spreading, creamy yellow, somewhat brittle, acute, entire, glabrous, faintly 5 nerved ; lateral sepals oblong-Ianceolate, connivent below with the foot forming the mentum;
Mentum 7 x 3-4 mm, infundibuliform, obtuse, straight or slightly curved.
Petals obovate or oblanceolate, tapered to the base.
Labellum: pale green or creamy yellow with brownish-red slightly inflated nerves on the inside, obscurely 3-lobedwith a 3-5 mm long claw; lateral lobes almost completely enveloping the column, obscure; midlobe circular, half opening.
The lip 25x15mm quadrately oblong or broadly subpanduriform in outline, only a shallow depression about the middle on the margin indicates the separation of the lateral lobes from the midlobe, obtuse; margins minutely fimbriate, the apical half of the lip puberulous; disc creamy yellow 3·nerved.
Column 3 x 3 mm, greenish yellow, the lateral arms somewhat projecting, acute; foot 8 mm long with a small nectarial depression at the base.
Anther 2 X 2 mm, white, somewhat faintly pitted;
poIlinia 4, each 1.5 x 0.5 mm waxy, yellow, oblong. Stigmatic surface ovoid, pale green.
Capsules 3.5-4 x 0.6 cm, narrowly spindle-shaped, beaked; pedicels 1.5 cm long.
Leaves: May to November.
Flowering: May to June.
Fruiting: May to December.