Dendrobium gracilicaule F. Muell. 1894 SECTION Dendrocoryne Photo by Copyright © W C Schraut and Orchids and More Website
Closer Flower Shot Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt, plant grown by Golden Gate Orchids
Another view and color form Photo courtesy of David P. Banks Australia Copyright ©
Another Color Form Photo courtesy of Patricia Harding
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Common Name The Delicate Stems Dendrobium - The Blotched Cane Orchid
Flower Size 1/2 to almost 1" [1.25 to 2.4 cm]
A medium to large sized, cool to warm growing epiphytic and sometimes lithophytic species from Queensland and New South Wales Australia and New Caledonia where it is found below 600 meters in sunny situations with erect, basally swollen, cylindrical, greyish stems carrying 3 to 6, longly lanceolate to ovate, acuminate, thin textured leaves flowering in the late winter and spring as younger plants and becoming freeflowering with age on a drooping few to many [5 to 40] flowered, fragrant raceme arising from the nodes near the apex of mature canes. Give this species a distinct dry winter starting in the mid fall and withhold fertilizer until new growth appears in the spring.
Some references say D comptonii is a synonym for this species as well. I have kept them and the representative synonyms separate for now.
Synonyms Callista elongata (A.Cunn. ex Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Callista gracilicaulis (F. Muell.) Kuntze 1891; Dendrobium brisbanense Rchb.f 1861; Dendrobium elongatum A. Cunningham not Lindley 1839; Dendrobium floribundum Rchb.f. 1875; Dendrobium gracilicaule var. howeanum Maiden 1899; Dendrobium macropus [Endl.]Rchb.f 1889 subsps. gracilicaule [F.Mueller]P.Green; Thelychiton gracilicaulis (F.Muell.) M.A.Clem. & D.L.Jones 2002; Tropilis gracilicaulis (F. Muell.) Butzin 1982
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; AOS Bulletin Vol 35 No 4 1966; Native Orchids of New Caledonia Societe' Neo-Caledonienne D' Orchidophile 1995; Orchid Species Culture; Dendrobium Bakers 1996; Australian Orchid Review Vol 71 No 5 2006 photo; The Dendrobiums H. P. Wood 2006; Native Orchids of Australia Jones 2006 as Thelychiton gracilicaulis
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