Orchid Silk Stem

Dendrobium Orchid

The genus Dendrobium is prolific and diverse, comprising some one hundred species, which vary greatly in size and shape. It contains D. violaceoflavens (vie-o-lay-see-o-flay-vens), with sixteen-foot pseudo bulbs, and D. Schneideri (sh'ny-der-eye or ee), measured in inches. It ranges from southern Asia, particularly the Sikkhim region, through Ceylon, Malaya, Siam, China, Japan, all the large islands (the Philippines, Java, Sumatra, Borneo), and even some of the small islands, to Australia and New Zealand.

A single species has been found to adjust itself to entirely different places. Members of the genus grow on trees, in the ground, and on bare rocks, through great extremes of temperature and elevation. Some have been found as high as 1500 to 2000 feet in Burma at 1200 F.
The Dendrobium plant is unusual in appearance, being sym-podial, epiphytic, and bulb less, but possessed of heavy cane-like stems, which also produce the papery-green leaves. Especially in the deciduous types these canes store sufficient moisture and food to tide the plant over periods of extreme drought.

The genus is divided into deciduous and evergreen, which again divides into warm- and cool-growing plants. All evergreen Den-drobes (the name affectionately given the genus by orchid growers) are handsome plants with their leafy, graceful foliage.

Dendrobes have cane-like stems, taking the place of pseudo bulbs, and bear the flowers in erect panicles (clusters, as of grapes), singly at the nodes, or in drooping racemes (stems with flowers attached at intervals). Evergreen Dendrobiums may be accommodated in the warm house.