Diplocaulobium nitidissimum (Rchb.f.) Kraenzl. 1910 SECTION Diplocaulobium

Plant and Flowers Photo courtesy of Peter O'Byrne, André Schuiteman, Dr. E.F. de Vogel and Jaap Vermeulen and Their Netherlands National Herbarium Website. and Flora Malesiana Vol III

Common Name or Meaning The Shining Diplocaulobium

Flower Size 1.6" to 2.4" [4 to 6 cm]

Found in the Bismark Archipelago, the Solomon Islands and New Guinea in coastal and lowland forests at elevations of sealevel to 120 meters as a small to medium sized, hot growing epiphyte with long slender, cylindrical pseudobulbs which carry the inflorescence and shorter, ovoid-fusiform to narrowly conical, 3 to 4 sided, non-flowering pseudobulbs carrying a single, apical, linear, gradually narrowing to the acute apex leaf that blooms in the summer, fall and winter on a terminal, 1" [2.5 cm] long, 1 flowered in fasciles of 1 to 4, inflorescence arising through an oblong spathe and carries very short lived flowers arising 8 days after rainfall.

Synonyms Callista nitidissima (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Dendrobium mettkeanum Kraenzl. 1894; *Dendrobium nitidissimum Rchb.f. 1876

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchidaceae of German New Guinea Schlechter 1912 as Dendrobium nitidissimum; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; The Orchids of the Solomon Islands and Bougainville Lewis & Cribb 1991 drawing ok; Lowland Orchids of Papua New Guinea O'Byrne 1994drawing/photo fide; Flora Malesiana Orchids of New Guinea Vol II Shuiteman and de Vogel 2002; Malesian Orchid Journal Vol 3 2009

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