Dendrobium tobaense J.J.Sm. & Comber 1993 SECTION Formosae Lindley Photo courtesy of Antoine Hendrickx © plant owned by Mr Pascal Buguel owner of the Buscal Firm.

Another Flower Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt, plant grown by Walter M. Shinn

Plant and flower Photos courtesy of Dale and Deni Borders

Common Name The Toba Dendrobium [A town in Sumatra]

Flower Size 3" [7.5 cm]

Found in northern Sumatra in pine and montane forsts at an altitude of 750 to 1500 meters as a small sized, warm to cool growing orchid with cylindrical stems carrying 8 to 9 oblong-ellptic, smooth on top, hairy beneath leaves that are apically bilobed and have leaf sheaths covered in black hairs, blooming on a very short, several flowered inflorescence with successive opening single flowers that arises from the base of the leaf sheath opposite the leaf occuring in the fall. A slight lessening of water and fertilizer should occur through the winter months and should be resumed only with the initiation of new growth in the spring.

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchid Species Culture; Dendrobium Bakers 1996; Orchids of Sumatra Comber 2001; A to Z of South East Asian Orchid Species Vol 1 O'Byrne 2001 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 1 2003 photo; The Dendrobiums H. P. Wood 2006

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