Dendrobium crepidatum Lindl.

Epiphyte. Stems long as 7 to 20 cm long and thickened around 1 cm at the base and 1 to 2 cm at its apex, green marked with parallel white lines, gradually going thickened upwards from the base, nodes slightly swollen, pendulous. Leaves 4 to 6 cm long, linear-lanceolate, deciduous during flowering. Flowers in short peduncles from the nodes of leafless stems, 2 cm across, often solitary but also seen with two or three together, fleshy, sepals and petals white with pale pink margins, sepals three and petals one veined; lip white with a large pale yellow spot of its middle portion. Sepals and petals broadly oblong. Lip obovate, broad, with undulate edges.

Dendrobium crepidatum, Lindl
Dendrobium crepidatum Lind.

The Pursuit

The species got much attention of Sir George King and Robert Pantling during their monumental work. They found much variations in the property of the species from specimens collected from Sikkim and as well as from Assam and Khasia Hills. They described the Sikkim specimens as “unattractive” and those from the Assam and Khasia Hills as “rather handsome flowers”. I had earlier studied the same species from Assam and Khasia Hills in the year 2009 and 2010 respectively. I was so enthusiastic to find the difference of it from the specimens of the Sikkim-Himalayas and was there in the region in the early summer of 2012. In the earlier visits itself I had found this plant from various tropical valleys. Its thickened, fleshy, leafless, white veined, green, pendulous and leafless stems, 3 or 4 together can be spotted very easily from its habitats. However, the species bloomed much earlier than expected and I missed a “well planned” opportunity. Lost the hope in getting it in flowers that year and marked as “pending observation”. But in the middle of April, I was at an altitude of around 3000 ft on the other side of the district for some other species and I found the same one in bloom, a few of them in flower and in buds. Those opened flowers were somewhat withered and with spots and dirts. So I decided to wait a couple of days for the buds to bloom and got this perfect photograph with its yellow spot and fleshy property of the sepals and petals well recorded. On comparison with the evidences of the species from Assam and Khasia Hills, it has been found that the Sikkim-Himalayan specimens are comparatively smaller in size but equally attractive.