Dendrobium alaticaulinum is a New Guinea Dendrobium from the Calyptrochilus section of that genus, though most of the New Guinea Dendrobiums I grow are from the Oxyglossum section. The Calyptrochilus Dendrobiums tend to be large plants with long semi-pendant canes, but this species is very small in comparison, the canes around 15 cm. The 2 cm flowers bloom at the end of the canes in clusters and do not open very widely. The plant is not a very eager bloomer for me, but since I reduced the light a bit it has bloomed more freely, this the best blooming yet.
Nice one Ron, its nice too in very compact form! most of mines are quite longer, the biggest being close to 50 cm long. A very rewarding species!
ReplyDeleteI've had it for a while, Laurent, but it hasn't bloomed with any but a very few flowers until now. Thanks for the comments.
DeleteVery nice Ron, as always! I wonder if this may actually be D. limpidum? I know there is quite a confusion between limpidum, alauticaulinum as well as dichaeoides. I hope to have all three and believe each one has wrong tag. My alauticaulinum has very thin stems and grow upwards with tops almost touching the light panel. I post them on google so you can have a look and comment...
ReplyDeleteI have the plant with thin, wiry stems also identified as alaticaulinum. Mine makes quite a tangle and the flowers are very different from this plant. In fact, I've grown plants identified as dichaeoides, limpidum and these two different plants of alaticualinum and the flowers of all are very different.
DeleteMy D. alaticualinum #1 is shown here with flat dichaea-like growths that are not as fat as limpidum nor as thin as dichaeoides and with flowers having the form of those in the Oxyglossum section and and an orange lip.
My D. alaticaulinum #2 has the thin, wiry growths and very tubular flowers without the orange lip or the fringed edge of limpidum.
My D. limpidum has fat, dichaea-like growths with tubular flowers that have a fringed edge to the lip and petals and a lip barely visible that is reddish-orange.
My D. dichaeoides had flowers that have the form of D. alaticaulinum #1 but a pink lip and no sign of the fringed edges to the lip and petals.
Hope that makes sense. I have no idea, though, whether my plants are correctly identified.
there has been indeed a lot of mess in this species group! I have the 5 known species (alaticaulinum, dichaeoides, protractum, limpidum and caliculimentum)and once you know what the differences are, they're quite easy to tell appart. There is a nice article published in "journal fur den orchideenfreund" in english and german, with a species ID key, by A. Schuiteman & E. de Vogel. I can find it on researchgate, here is the link (but I don't know if it will work for non registered users...)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andre_Schuiteman/publication/280483067_Dendrobium_limpidum_Schuit_de_Vogel_a_new_species_of_section_Pedilonum_from_New_Guinea_with_a_key_to_related_species/links/55b5f93608ae9289a08a8d9d.pdf?inViewer=0&pdfJsDownload=0&origin=publication_detail
Laurent
Thanks, Laurent. That article was most helpful. Looks like the plant I just posted is probably D. protractum and not alaticaulinum.
Deleteso you'd be one of the first to grow protractum for such a long time :-) Did you observe the "dead leaves remnants" attached to the pseudobulbs?
ReplyDeleteI am as confused as ever, Laurent. I've read the article more carefully and checked all the pertinent features and this plant has leaves that are more or less at right angles to the canes as you can see in the photos which indicates D. limpidum, but the flowers certainly are not of that species. The shape of the leaves also rules out D. limpidum as do the lack of "fringe" and lip shape of the flowers. What I took to be old withered leaves appear to be just old leaf sheaths and the excision of the leaves appears instead to be clean, so I'm staying with D. alaticaulinum on this one. The shape and color of the lip would also seem to indicate that species.
DeleteNice one! Does it have a dry season?
ReplyDeleteI don't give it a dry season. Perhaps it needs one but seems to do okay without.
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