Dendrobium falcorostrum
Dendrobium falcorostrum, commonly known as beech orchid, is a species of epiphytic orchid endemic to eastern Australia. It has spindle-shaped pseudobulbs, each with between two and five leathery leaves and up to twenty crowded white flowers with purple markings on the labellum.
Description
Dendrobium falcorostrum is an epiphytic herb that has crowded, yellowish green, spindle-shaped pseudobulbs long and wide. Each pseudobulb has between two and five narrow elliptic to lance-shaped, dark green, leathery leaves long and wide. The flowering stem is long with between four and twenty crowded white flowers long and wide. The dorsal sepal is long and wide. The lateral sepals are long, wide and the petals are a similar length but narrower. The labellum is white with purple markings, about long and wide with three lobes. The side lobes curve upwards and the middle lobe has a Y-shaped ridge with a pointed end along its midline. Flowering occurs between August and October.
Taxonomy and naming
Dendrobium falcorostrum was first formally described in 1876 by Robert D. FitzGerald and the description was published in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Beech orchid grows in highland rainforest, mainly on antarctic beech between the Lamington National Park in Queensland and the Hunter River in New South Wales.