SITF Submissions and Findings

Although this Section of Dendrobium is poorly understood, the preponderance of characteristics places this plant within Dendrobium bilobum. Schlecter commented in the "Orchidacea of German New Guinea" that there is hardly any other section in which the distinguishing features of the species have presented such insuperable difficulties as this one. The most important characteristics in this Section seem to be the size of the leaves and their various parts, length and shape of the mentum, width of the petals and most importantly the shape of the lip. Schlechter also said that most of the individual species within Section Monanthos are inter-related and it is not easy to distinguish them. The leaves on this plant are a better fit to D. bilobum than to the closely allied species, D. erectifolium, which has much longer leaves than D. bilobum. This plant meets the description as detailed and illustrated in Lewis & Cribb's 1991 book, "Orchids of the Solomon Islands and Bougainville", although the flower size is large for D. bilobum.

This plant meets the description and drawings of C. parva in the Selbyana 25(1) 2004 article by Dressler, "A synopsis of Cischweinfia". C. emarginata, C. horichii and C. chasei are synonymous with C. parva and differ in minor characteristics, like number of flowers per inflorescence, flower size, and color of lip markings; the measurements on the SITF form appear to be incorrect for the pseudobulb size and were not used in identification; the spacing of 1cm between pseudobulbs does appear correct and using this as a measurement, the pseudobulb size and shape, the leaf shape and the flower form and size fits C. parva; supporting photos of C. parva are in the OW and IOSPE.

This plant keys to Cynorkis lowiana in Hermans and Cribb's "Fieldguide to the Orchids of Madagascar"; matches photos in the IOSPE, OW and orchidroots; flower size is within the description at 2.7cm; there may be minor variations in some characteristics, such as the petal size, depth of color and depth of the split in the apex of the bilobed lip, but overall they are within a narrow range of variation.

There is a large amount of confusion between D. polyanthum, D. primulinum and D. cretaceum. Kew in the POWO considers D. polyanthum and D. primulinum to be separate species, however, many sources lists them as synonymous and many of the photos (OW and orchidroots) has them lumped together as D. polyanthum. The IOSPE lists them as separate species. There is an exact match to this plant in the POWO as D. polyanthum. Kew considers D. cretaceum a synonym for D. polyanthum. H. P. Wood in "Dendrobiums" described D. polyanthum and states,: "Discussions about the legitimate name of all three (polyanthum, primulinum, and cretaceum) go back more than a century." Wood stated he studied the type specimens at Kew and agreed with Kew that the correct name is D. polyanthum.

Confirmation based on photographs in the orchidsofbritainandeurope.co.uk, botany.cz and orchidspecies.com; flower size on this plant appears to be somewhat large for O. pauciflora. Supporting photos matching this plant are also in the OW.

This plant matches photos of the leaf color and form, flower form and color, and the inflorescences in the IOSPE, OW and orchidroots; with its basal rosette, variegated leaf, inflorescence with spiraling flower placement, flower size, form and color and distinctive white lip, this plant matches C. lindleyanus.

Closely matches albescence color forms in orchidroots.com; matches Baker's description of D. emarginata in the OW; matches the line drawing Tab. 117, "Hoehne's Iconografia de Orchidaceae do Brasil" (1949); typo color of D. emarginata is pink; this plant is a pale albescence color form.