__NOTOC__ ''Dendrochilum'' (commonly abbreviated ''Ddc.'' in

horticulture Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

) 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 ...

epiphytic An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

, 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 Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

(Orchidaceae). It is now considered to be a synonym of ''

Coelogyne ''Coelogyne'' is a genus of 594 species, which are sympodial epiphytes from the family Orchidaceae, distributed across India, China, Indonesia and the Fiji islands, with the main centers in Borneo, Sumatra and the Himalayas. They can be found fro ...

'' 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

Malesia Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and the boundaries of the Indomalayan and Australasian realms. It is a phytogeographical floristic region in the Paleotropical kingdom. It was first recognized as a distinct region ...

n 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 Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

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

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s that are generally produced in two rows on erect or arching pendant, many-flowered

raceme A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...

s. 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 ''Dendrochilum glumaceum'', the hay-scented orchid or husk-like dendrochilum, was described by John Lindley in 1841. It is an elegant looking epiphytic or lithophytic dendrochilum that occurs in the Philippines and Borneo at altitudes between 7 ...

, ''D. glumaceum''). The stems are ovoid to cylindrical, striped, sharply reduced

pseudobulb In botany, a pseudobulb is a storage organ found in many epiphytic and terrestrial sympodial orchids. It is derived from a thickening of the part of a stem between leaf nodes and may be composed of just one internode or several, termed ''heter ...

s, about long, with green to brown

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also lo ...

s at their base. Each carries one or two tough, erect and lanceolate

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

, usually about long, with narrow petioles. The elliptical leaves of the

Long-leaved Dendrochilum ''Dendrochilum longifolium'' is a species of 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 cosmopolita ...

('' 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

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

s. Numerous new

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

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 Charles Ludwig de Blume or Karl Ludwig von Blume (9 June 1796 – 3 February 1862) was a German-Dutch botanist and entomologist who spent most of his professional life in the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. As deputy director of agricul ...

in 1825, is ''

Dendrochilum aurantiacum __NOTOC__ ''Dendrochilum'' (commonly abbreviated ''Ddc.'' in horticulture) was a genus of epiphytic, lithophytic and a few terrestrial flowering plants in the orchid family (Orchidaceae). It is now considered to be a synonym of '' Coelogyne'' ...

'' 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 Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

. Several species were formerly separated in ''Acoridium'' (established by

Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck (14 February 1776 – 16 March 1858) was a prolific Germany, German botanist, physician, zoologist, and natural philosopher. He was a contemporary of Goethe and was born within the lifetime of Carl Li ...

and Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen in 1843) or ''Platyclinis'' (established by

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studie ...

in 1881), but these two taxa are now regarded as

s of ''Dendrochilum''.

Selected species

* '' Dendrochilum anfractum'' * ''

'' * '' Dendrochilum cobbianum'' * '' Dendrochilum cootesii'' * '' Dendrochilum glumaceum'' * '' Dendrochilum ignisiflorum'' * ''

Dendrochilum javieriense ''Dendrochilum javieriense'' is a species of orchid, commonly known as Javier's dendrochilum. It is endemic to the island of Luzon in the Philippines. References

Dendrochilum, javieriense Orchids of the Philippines Plants described in ...

'' * ''

Dendrochilum longifolium ''Dendrochilum longifolium'' is a species of 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 cosmopolita ...

'' * '' 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