Smithsonian Gardens

Common name: Dendrobium species

Family: Orchidaceae subfam. Epidendroideae (Orchid)

Synonym: Diplocaulobium sp., Flickingeria sp.

Distribution: Tropical and Subtrop Asia to Pacific and New Zealand

Life form: Epiphytic

Description: Dendrobium is one of the larger orchid genera, made up of over 1,600 species from tropical and subtropical Asia through many of the Pacific islands to New Zealand. It was first described in 1799, using the ancient Greek words for tree (dendron) and life (bios) to refer to the fact that most dendrobiums are tree-growing epiphytes. The orchids listed here are of an unknown species, likely because we received them without information. We are waiting for them to bloom, so we can identify them.