Dendrobium closterium Rchb.f. 1876 SECTION Eleutheroglossum Photo by Copyright © W C Schraut and Orchids and More Website

Plant in situ in New Caledonia Photo by © Edouard Faria

Part sunHotWarm LATE spring EARLYSummer

Common Name or Meaning The ? Dendrobium

Flower Size .8 to 1.2" [2 to 3 cm]

Found in New Caledonia in scrubland on small trees or on rocks below at elevations of sealevel to 1000 meters as a miniature sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte or lithophyte with medially swollen stems carrying 2 to 5, leathery, erect to spreading, elliptic, unequally bilobed leaves that blooms in the later spring and early summer on an erect to arching, 2 to 20 flowered inflorescence arising from the nodes near the apex of the stem or at the apex so as to appear terminal.

This species is superficially similar to D ngoyense but differs in the size of the plant, the acute to rounded lip and the straight and then wavy at the apex only calli of the lip

Tie this orchid to a mount or in a small well drained pot year round water and fertilizer and given bright light and hot to warm temps to achieve blooming.

Synonyms Dendrobium closterium var. jocosum (Rchb.f.) N.Hallé 1977; Dendrobium eleutheroglossum Schltr. 1906; Dendrobium jocosum Rchb.f. 1876; Dendrobium myrticola Kraenzl. 1929; Eleutheroglossum closterium (Rchb.f.) M.A.Clem. & D.L.Jones 2002; Eleutheroglossum jocosum (Rchb.f.) M.A.Clem. & D.L.Jones 2002; Tropilis closterium (Rchb.f.) Butzin 1982

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Contributions to the Flora of New Caledonia Schlechter 1906 as D eleutheroglossum; Contributions to the Flora of New Caledonia Schlechter 1906; Contributions to the Flora of New Caledonia Schlechter 1906 as D jocosum; Orchidaceae Monandre-Dendrobiinae Fr. Kraenzlin 1910; Orchidaceae Monandre-Dendrobiinae Fr. Kraenzlin 1910 as D eleutheroglossum; Orchidaceae Monandre-Dendrobiinae Fr. Kraenzlin 1910 as D jocosum; Flore de la Nouvelle-Caledonie et Dependences Vol 8 Orchidaceae Halle 1977 drawing fide; Flore de la Nouvelle-Caledonie et Dependences Vol 8 Orchidaceae Halle 1977 as D closterium var jocosum drawing fide; Native Orchids of New Caledonia Societie Neo-Caledonienne d'Orchidophile 1995 photo fide; Native Orchids of New Caledonia Societie Neo-Caledonienne d'Orchidophile 1995 as D closterium var jocosum photo fide; Orchid Species Culture Dendrobium Bakers 1996; Dendrobium and their Relatives Lavarack, Harris and Stocker 2000 photo good; The Dendrobiums H. P. Wood 2006 photo fide; Genera Orchidacearum Vol 6 Epidendrodeae Part 3 Pridgeon, Cribb, Chase and Rasmussen 2014

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