got meself a new orchid

I was in an orchid garden a few days ago and I noticed a strange, dry looking (almost like a succulent) orchid. I asked what it was an the guy said it was a Dendrobium, from Irian Jaya. The flowers are quite small and overall the plant looks quite unusual, especially for a Dendrobium. I asked if I could buy it and they had two for sale so I got one. They weren't much help with cultivation but Dendrob's are usually pretty straightforwrd I guess. Just for my own info I did a search on the net but not found any info. I'll try and get a few pics.

Has anyone heard of this species, and if so can you point me toward a site that has them on it?

Cheers, fatboy.

Fatboy - Try 'caniculatum'.  I know that there's a dendrobium with that name.  If that's it, I'll see what I can find out about it in my books tonight.    





(Edited by Merlin at 10:47 am on May 14, 2002)

Should have thought of that Merlin as the tag would have been written by an Indonesian. In Indonesian the "k" sound is always written with a K. "c" is pronounced "ch".

Cheers, I'll give that a go.

fatboy

Well, I'm home and I'm looking through my books.

Unfortunately, I'm striking out with 'caniculatum'.  However, there is a popular Dendrobium named 'canaliculatum'.  All the Google hits on 'caniculatum' seem to be misspellings of 'canaliculatum'.  If your plant has short pseudobulbs with a few succulent leaves at the tips of the pseudobulbs  (leaves are a dull greyish-green with a shallow groove on the upper surface) and either off-white flowers with yellow-tipped tepals and a purple lip or brown to blackish tepals with a purple lip, then it probably is 'canaliculatum'.

According to my book, canaliculatum needs strong light (even full sun) and needs to be kept dry during spells of cooler weather.  They rot easily if kept cool and humid.  

Anyway, I hope some of this helps.

(Edited by Merlin at 12:25 pm on May 14, 2002)

Morning Merlin

Your description is exactly right.
As I said in my original post it is almost cactus looking, and yes it does have short psuedo bulbs. The entire plant is quite small though not a miniature.

You're a star!

Thanks again, fatboy.

Glad I could help