Dendrobium Sw.
II. Dendrobium section Fytchianthe Schlechter 1912
Features:
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Stems clustered, cane-like, fleshy, leafy throughout, not branching, with limited apical growth.
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Leaves with a tubular sheath at base, short-lived.
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Inflorescences elongate, erect or patent, few- to many flowered, arising from upper part of leafless stems.
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Flowers with petals broader than sepals; mentum well-developed, narrowly conical or spur-like.
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Labellum adnate to column foot, trilobed, the midlobe much larger than lateral lobes, with a pubescent area at base of midlobe
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This section is represented by two species at Sindhudurg district
Dendrobium ovatum (L.) Kraenzl.
In H.G.A.Engler (ed.), Pflanzenr., IV, 50 II B 21: 71 (1910)
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Callista ovata (L.) Kuntze in Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 653 (1891)
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Cymbidium ovatum (L.) Willd. in Sp. Pl., ed. 4. 4: 101 (1805)
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Epidendrum ovatum L. in Sp. Pl.: 952 (1753)
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Dendrobium chlorops Lindl. in Edwards's Bot. Reg. 30(Misc.): 44 (1844)
Ecology very common epiphytic orchid found growing on Different species of Terminalia, Strychnos nux, vomica Mangifera, indica Erythrina, subrosa,Tectona grandis & so many other trees in semievergreen forest
This species is endemic to western ghats & it is observed everywhere in Sindhudurg district
Pseudobulbs up to 50cm long, more or less. uniformly mauve-brown, leafless at the time of flowering; internodes one to many, 2-3.5 cm long, longitudinally ribbed, the nodes slightly swollen.
Leaves caducous, alternate, membranous, sheathing at the base, 5-11x 1.2-3 cm, elliptic-oblong or oblong-lanceolate, acute, entire, glabrous, many-nerved.
Inflorescence in racemes from the apical part of the pseudobulb, often up to 9, coming into flower at intervals; peduncles with sheathing bracts at the base; racemes about 3-15 cm long, several-flowered, subpendulous.
Flowers about 1.4-1.8 cm across, cream-yellow with pale green centres, pedicellate, bracteate. Pedicel with ovary about ·17 mm long, pale brown.
Bracts 2-3 mm long, membranous, scarious, oblong, acute, sheathing.
Sepal 7-10 X 3-4 mm, pale creamy yellow, ovate-oblong, obtuse or mucro nulate, entire, spreading, faintly 3-nerved, glabrous; dorsal sepal more tapered towards the apex; mentum 3-4 mm long, pale green, more or less keel-shaped.
Petals 7-9 x 5-6 mm pale creamy yellow, obovate-oblong, suddenly widened just behind the minutely mucro nulate apex, faintly 5-nerved, entire, glabrous.
Lip 7-8 mm long, pale creamy yellow, slightly clawed at the base, 3-1obed; lateral lobes 4 X 2 mm oblong, obtuse, erect and connivent over the column; midlobe 4 X 3 mm, quadrate-oblong, rounded, subtruncate or subretuse at the apex, curved downwards from the lateral lobes, glabrous; disc with a callus, subretuse, surrounded all over by pale green, soft hairs.
Column about 2-3 mm long, with a foot which is broad, tapering downwards, somewhat conical, curved, 3-5 mm long.
Anther about 1.5-2 mm long, conical, obtuse, apiculate in front, yellowish. Stigmatic surface obovoid.
Capsules about 18 x 8 mm oblong-ovoid, purple, ribbed; stalk 10 mm long.
Leaves & Fruiting: June to
September.
Flowering: December- January
