Tall Dendrobium

[Leucadian]

I bought this plant from an old collection, without a name. It's 42" tall, with about 11" on the inflorescence (the tip broke off), and the buds are 1" long. It suffered in the January rainstorms here in San Diego, and in addition to the tip breaking off, 7 for the 10 buds dropped off. I thought it was Epidendrum robustum till it spiked, but it's clearly a Dendrobium. I'll post pictures of the remaining flowers if they survive, but in the meantime, can you tell me what I've got?

Now it has bloomed. Green and brown, about 1.9" wide, ruffled petals. Any guesses?

[jkofferdahl]

"Please identify this orchid for me" is among the most asked questions here. Sadly, giving an answer is usually virtually impossible, and harder still without pictures of the actual blooms. Plants tend to look like plants within a genus and sometimes across multiple genii. Further, with all of the hybridization being done, there are hundreds upon hundreds of flowers which are essentially identical. It's highly unlikely you'll ever know the "name" of your plant; relax, enjoy growing it, and be thankful for the flowers!

[dounoharm]

hi! you seem to have a dendrobium of the phaleonopsis variety...that's about all you will ever know about it, except that it likes to grow tall!....the best blooming dendrobium I ever had was a $6 purchase from a grocery store...I felt so sorry for it so I bought it, and it rewarded me with blooms about 3 years nonstop! I don't know what it was, but it was a very strong plant, got huge, and bloomed like mad! good luck with yours!

[pipsxlch]

I'm thinking it could be a spatulata with that height and type also, or (perhaps more likely) an intermediate from crosses of spatulatas and phal types. If any blooms make it, they should help narrow down type, though you probably won't be able to get a name. Spatulatas and phal types are closely related and take the same basic care anyhow; collectively they're called 'hard canes'.

Even if you lose these remaining buds, you should get more once summer has started.

[PaphMadMan]

I'm with pipsxlch, this is probably a Dendrobium section Spatulata plant, or maybe a hybrid with section Phalaenanthe. While a precise ID is unlikely unless it is a species, with open flowers it should be possible to be certain of the general type of hybrid, and therefore the best care. I hope at least a few flowers open for you.

[Leucadian]

I'm hopeful that some of the buds will open in the next few days. I added a picture of the cane with reddish stripes on it, maybe it's distinctive. I think D. spatulata is a good guess. I thought it was a species, but who knows? I found a copy of a monograph 'Dendrobiniiae A Manual' by Helmut Rohrl at our San Diego OS, but it didn't have much in the way of a description of D. spatulata.

[Leucadian]

I added a picture of the open flowers in the opening post.

[pipsxlch]

I think it has a lot of D. discolor in it. Don't think it's purebred; just an intermediate type hybrid with a lot of spatulata especially discolor. Spatulata flowers tend to lengthen and twist over a few days though; let's see if the petals do so. Discolor can be pretty variable so I suppose it could be that.

[MrHappyRotter]

After seeing the photo of the flower, I'm thinking it's got a lot of discolor in it as well.

[Leucadian]

Here's a better picture of the flowers taken today. The first bloom was in Feb, so it only took 4 months to bloom again.

I think this is D. discolor. Thanks for the help with the ID.