nobile vs nobile type!

[801229001]

Okay this has been bothering a lot lately so i decided to make this thread to help people understand the difference between a Dendrobium nobile and a nobile type Dendrobium.

since i felt that most people who get these 2 mixed up are beginners , i posted this in the beginners section but feel free to move it.


I will start with nobile type Dendrobiums; these are species or hybrids in (section Dendrobium) of the genus Dendrobium. there are many species and hybrids created using this section but most of them have long canes that are deciduous and need a winter rest to bloom. some of these hybrids look very much like species or other hybrids but are not so they should never be "identified" by anybody. plants in this section include but are not limited to: Dendrobium nobile, Dendrobium unicum, Dendrobium pendulum, Dendrobium parishii, Dendrobium loddigesii and Dendrobium anosmum.


While nobile type plants are a section of Dendrobium that includes many closely related species and their hybrids, Dendrobium nobile is a species in this section and in the genus Dendrobium. Many nobile type hybrids have Dendrobium nobile as a parent thus they look very similar to each other. And because they looked so similar people started calling plants of section Dendrobium just "nobile type Dendrobium" and this is super confusing because when people buy nobile type Dendrobiums, they start calling them just Dendrobium nobile which is obviously a huge problem because we don't know if it is the true species or not.
And more problems arise when these people put labels on their plants that read Dendrobium nobile.

I advise everyone to google a picture of dendrobium nobile. it is the one with the mostly white flower with purple petals and white lip with very dark purple inside.
most of the pictures depicting plants in the wild are the real Dendrobium nobile.

If you have a Dendrobium nobile with a hand written tag , or a plant that did not come from a well known nursery then i advise you to compare your plant to the pictures to figure out if its a true nobile or not.

If you had a noid plant that you labeled Dendrobium nobile , you should DEFINITELY take out the label and replace it with "noid".

Hopefully this helps to clear up the confusion!

[gnathaniel]

Good point! I've also noticed some confusing references to nobile-type hybrids as 'nobiles'. Given that it's useful to have a shorthand term to discuss, eg, the cultural needs common to many species and hybrids of this section, what would you suggest as an alternate name? 'Section Dendrobium hybrids' is certainly accurate (actually more so than 'nobile-type' since not all the hybrids have nobile ancestry) but it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue/fingers...

[NYCorchidman]

Many nobile hybrids do not look like species nobile at all to my eyes.

I think because nobile hybrids are all the more common and popular than species nobile, some people just get lazy and call the hybrids "nobile" instead of referring to them as either nobile hybrids or nobile "type".