__NOTOC__ ''Dendrochilum'' (commonly abbreviated ''Ddc.'' in horticulture) was a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of epiphytic, lithophytic and a few terrestrial

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s in the

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

family (Orchidaceae). It is now considered to be a synonym of '' Coelogyne'' Lindl. The name of this genus was derived from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

words ("tree"), and either ("lip")Schubert, R., & Wagner, G. (1988). ''Botanisches Wörterbuch'' (9th edition). Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer. or ("green food"), alluding to either the flowers' large lip or to their epiphytic growth. These orchids are popular among orchid collectors.

Distribution and description

''Dendrochilum'' are distributed at higher elevations in the humid

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

s throughout the Malesian region, with some in the surrounding lands; thus they occur from

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. However, most species are found on Borneo or the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> This genus produces miniature, fragrant, star-shaped flowers that are generally produced in two rows on erect or arching pendant, many-flowered racemes. These

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

s can grow to a length of (e.g. in the Hay-scented Orchid, ''D. glumaceum''). The stems are ovoid to cylindrical, striped, sharply reduced pseudobulbs, about long, with green to brown bracts at their base. Each carries one or two tough, erect and lanceolate leaves, usually about long, with narrow petioles. The elliptical leaves of the Long-leaved Dendrochilum ('' D. longifolium'') may grow to a length of .

Taxonomy

The precise number of species is disputed; many websites accept as few as 100 or so, while others recognize far more. For example, the World Checklist of Monocotyledons lists 390 records, including names that have become synonyms. Numerous new taxa have become known in recent decades.e.g. Pedersen (1997), Wood (1997) Many of these orchids (67 species in the list used here) were named by Johannes Jacobus Smith, an eminent Dutch botanist. The genus'

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

, described by Carl Ludwig Blume in 1825, is '' Dendrochilum aurantiacum'' of

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

and Sumatra. Several species were formerly separated in ''Acoridium'' (established by Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck and Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen in 1843) or ''Platyclinis'' (established by George Bentham in 1881), but these two taxa are now regarded as synonyms of ''Dendrochilum''.

Selected species

* '' Dendrochilum anfractum'' * '' Dendrochilum aurantiacum'' * '' Dendrochilum cobbianum'' * '' Dendrochilum cootesii'' * '' Dendrochilum glumaceum'' * '' Dendrochilum ignisiflorum'' * '' Dendrochilum javieriense'' * '' Dendrochilum longifolium'' * '' Dendrochilum magnum''

Footnotes

References

* (1995): The genus ''Dendrochilum. In: Orchids Australia''. * (2004): The genus ''Dendrochilum''. ''In:'' : ''Genera Orchidacearum'' (Vol. 3). Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. * (2002): ''Dendrochilum: elegance in miniature''. ''Orchid Review'' 110(1246): 212-217. * (1997): The genus ''Dendrochilum'' (Orchidaceae) in the Philippines – a taxonomic revision. ''Opera Botanica'' 131: 5-205. * (1997): ''Orchids of Borneo'' (Vol.3: ''Dendrobium, Dendrochilum'' and others). Sabah Society, Kota Kinabalu and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

External links

* * {{Authority control Arethuseae genera Epiphytic orchids