!Oberonia iridifolia [Roxb.] Lindley 1830 SUBGENUS Oberonia Photo courtesy of Jay Pfahl

Another Flower Color Photo by Andre Schuitemann and Preliminary checklist of the Orchidaceae of Laos Website

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Common Name The Iris-Like Leaf Oberonia

Flower Size less than 1/8" [less than 4 mm]

Found in Hainan China, Assam, Bangladesh, Eastern Himalayas, India, Nepal, Andaman Islands, Myanamar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, the Philippines, New Guinea and Sulawesi at elevations of 10 to 200 meters as a pendulous growing, small sized, hot to cool growing epiphyte that has a clustered, short, leafy stem enveloped by 3 to 4, fleshy, distichous, fan shaped, iridiform, acute, flat, conduplicate and clasping as well as articulate to the imbricate, compressed leaf bases from which a 10" [15 to 25 cm] long inflorescence arising from the apex of the fan-shaped growth and has a rat-tail shape with elliptic, erose floral bracts and densely to laxly many flowers occuring in the fall and winter.

This species is most likely Oberonia mucronata as it was described 5 years earlier as Stelis mucronata D Don 1885, but most commercial growers give it this name.

Synonyms *Cymbidium iridifolium Roxb. 1832; Iridorchis iridifolia (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Malaxis denticulata (Wight) Rchb.f. 1861; Malaxis iridifolia (Lindl.) Rchb. f. 1861; Oberonia brevifolia (Hook.f.) Panigrahi 1999; Oberonia denticulata Wight 1851; Oberonia denticulata var. brevifolia (Hook.f.) S.Misra 1989; Oberonia iridifolia var. brevifolia Hook.f. 1890; Oberonia iridifolia var denticulata Hk. f., Santapau, Fernandes and Kapadia 1958; Oberonia mucronata (D.Don) Ormerod & Seidenf. 1997; Stelis mucronata D.Don 1825

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list as O mucronata, IPNI ; The Orchids of Burma Grant 1895/95; The Orchids of Sikkim-Himalaya Part 1 King & Pantling 1898 drawing fide; Die Orchideen Von Java J.J.Sm. 1905; Die Orchideen Von Java Figuren Atlas J.J.Smith 1908 drawing fide; Flora of Malaysia Vol 1 Holttum 1957; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1959 photo; Orchidiana Philipiniana Vol 1 Valmayor 1984; The Orchids of Java Comber 1990 photo fide; The Orchids of Penninsular Malaysia and Singapore Seidenfaden 1992 drawing fide/photo ok; A Checklist of the Orchids of Borneo Wood & Cribb 1994; The Orchids of Sumatra Comber 2001 photo fide; Orchdis of Sarawak Beaman & Wood 2001 as O mucronata; Orchid Flora Of Kamrup District Assam Iswar Chandra Barua 2001 as O denticulata; Beautiful Orchids of Nepal Rajbhandari & Bhattarai 2001 as O denticulata; Lindleyana Vol 17 No 1 2002; Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002 as Oberonia mucronata; Flora Malesiana Orchids of the Philippines Vol I Agoo, Shuiteman and de Vogel 2003; The Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007 as O mucronata drawing/photo ok; Flora of China Vol 25 Zhengyi, Raven & Deyuan 2009 as O mucronata; The Wild Orchids in Yunnan Xu Xiang Ye & Liu 2010 as O mucronataphotos fide;

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