Dendrobium affine
White butterfly orchid
Family OrchidaceaeAlso called Malakmalak, Matngala
About
The white butterfly orchid is a bark-dwelling epiphyte of northern Australia, New Guinea and nearby islands. Tall cylindrical pseudobulbs carry sprays of up to twenty white flowers with a yellow, purple-marked lip.
Field notes
Morphology
Green cylindrical pseudobulbs 20–70 cm tall bear two to ten leaves on their upper half. Flowering stems 20–50 cm long hold two to twenty white flowers 2.5–4.5 cm wide; the petals are broader than the sepals and the three-lobed labellum is yellow with purple markings.
Distribution & habitat
Northern Northern Territory including Melville Island, the Kimberley of Western Australia, New Guinea and the Moluccas; formerly on Timor, where it may now be extinct. It grows on trees in moist places such as rainforest, stream banks and paperbark swamps.
History & etymology
First described in 1834 by Joseph Decaisne as Onychium affine; Ernst von Steudel moved it to Dendrobium in 1840. Its Aboriginal names include malakmalak and matngala.
Habitat
- Altitude
- Not recorded
- Altitude class
- —
- Native to
- Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Timor-Leste
Cultivation
- Difficulty
- Not recorded
Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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