Dendrobium tetragonum

This small growing Dendrobium comes from Australia where it grows as an epiphyte in humid ravines and gullies in Queensland and New South Wales.

We grow the species mounted as plants are very pendulous and find that it enjoys a shaded and cool environment (in our Cloud Forest Greenhouse min 12C) with a little less water in the winter but not a prolonged dry period.

The flowers are long lasting and flower from new and old bulbs. The name refers to the four sided bulbs which make this species very easy to identify when not in flower although there seems to be several distinct varieties. This plant is the small growing small flowered type that produces lots of flowers at a time. We have also a large flowered variety that is bigger all round but has less flowers at a time. These have been separated into different sub-species or species by some and I have been told by an Australian specialist that this is Dendrobium tetragonum var. melaleucaphilum.