Dendrobium aloifolium (Blume) Rchb.f. 1861 SECTION Aporum
Plant and Flowers Photos courtesy of André Schuiteman, Jaap Vermeulen and Dr. E.F. de Vogel and Their Netherlands National Herbarium Website
Flower with reflexed petals and sepals Photo by © Pieter C. Brouwer and his Nature Photo Website
Flower with reflexed petals and sepals Photo by © Manorot Tangsaveepha Butterfly and Orchids Website
Common Name or Meaning The Aloe-Like Dendrobium - in Thailand - Ueang chang
Flower Size .18" [4mm]
Found in Myanamar, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Lesser Sunda Islands, New Guinea and the Philippines in lowland and hill forests from sea level to 600 meters as a medium to large sized, hot growing epiphyte with upright in youth, pendulous with age stems, leafy below and the apical section covered with leafy racts that soon fall off leaving bundles of dry bracts from which the flowers emerge, carrying laterally flattened, acute, distichous, diminish towards the apex, imbricate, often purplish leaves that blooms in the spring on the leafless, fractiflex, 2 to 4" [5 to 10 cm] long, apical portion of the stem with the successively single flowers well spaced out arising from the tufty nodes along the leafless elongate stem.
There seem to be 2 main color varieties: with the first species, the cream striped red flower, and the second, the concolor, cream colored flower with reflexed tepals, and the third, the cream colored flowers with flat tepals. Siedenfaden makes mention that the species with backbent dorsal sepal and petals is more correct for D aloifolium and the flowers of D rhodostele have flowers with forward bent dorsal sepal and petals. Hmm haven't seen it as of yet.
Synonyms Aporum aloifolium (Blume) Brieger 1981; Aporum cochinchinense (Ridl.) Rauschert 1983; Aporum lobbii M.A.Clem. 2003; Aporum micranthum Griff. 1844; Aporum serra Lindl. 1830; Callista aloifolia (Blume) Kuntze 1891; Callista micrantha (Griff.) Kuntze 1891; Dendrobium cochinchinense Ridl. 1896; Dendrobium lobbii Lindl. 1859; Dendrobium micranthum (Griff.) Lindl. 1859; Dendrobium serra (Lindl.) Lindl. 1859; *Macrostomium aloifolium Blume 1825; Oxystophyllum macrostoma Hassk. 1843
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of Burma Grant 1895/1995 as D serra; Die Orchideen Von Java J.J.Sm. 1905; Die Orchideen Von Java Figuren Atlas J.J.Smith 1908 drawing fide; Flora of Malaya Vol 1 Holttum 1957 drawing fide; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1959 drawing fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Orchidiana Philipiniana Vol 1 Valmayor 1984; Orchids of Java Comber 1990 photo ok; The Orchids of Penninsular Malaysia and Singapore Wood & Seidenfaden 1992 drawing/photo fide; The Plants of Mount Kinabalu Vol 2 Orchids Wood Beaman & Beaman 1993; A Checklist of the Orchids of Borneo Wood & Cribb 1994; Orchid Species Culture Dendrobium Bakers 1996; A Field Guide to the Wild Orchids of Thailand Vaddhanaphuti 2001 photo ok; Orchids of Sumatra Comber 2001; The Orchids of the Philippines Cootes 2001 photo ok; Flora Malesiana Orchids of the Philippines Vol I Agoo, Shuiteman and de Vogel 2003; ; Flora Malesiana Orchids of New Guinea Vol II Shuiteman and de Vogel 2002; Malesian Orchid Journal Vol 6 2010; The Orchids of Mount Kinabalu Vol 2 Wood, Beaman, Lamb, Chu Lun and Beaman 2011 photo fide; Wild Orchids of Penninsular Malaysia Ong, O'Byrne, Yong & Saw 2011 photo ok
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
