About
An Asian orchid of mountain valleys that grows on tree trunks and rocks. Club-shaped stems produce dense, hanging clusters of pale yellow flowers with a golden-yellow lip.
Field notes
Morphology
Club-shaped stems 25–40 cm long, swollen at the base, carry three or four leathery leaves 8–17 cm long near the tip. Pendent flowering stems 6–16 cm long are packed with flowers 3–4 cm wide, pale yellow with a golden-yellow labellum and nearly round petals.
Distribution & habitat
China, Bhutan, northeastern India, Myanmar, Nepal and Thailand, on broadleaved evergreen trees and rocks in mountain valleys at 400–1,000 m. Confusion with the similar D. guibertii and D. amabile makes its exact range uncertain.
History & etymology
Described by John Lindley in 1830 in Nathaniel Wallich's Plantae Asiaticae rariores. It has been used in traditional Chinese medicine, and compounds such as phenanthrenes have been isolated from its stems for pharmacological study.
Habitat
- Altitude
- Not recorded
- Altitude class
- —
- Native to
- China, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand
Cultivation
- Difficulty
- Not recorded
Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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