Epiphytic. Stems pendulous, branched and slender, as long as 20 to 30 cm. Leaves lanceolate, acute, 4 to 7 cm long and about 2 cm in width. Flowers 2 to 3 cm across, leaf opposed, solitary. Sepals and petals yellow; lip with numerous brown streaks margined with yellow; the disc crest is greenish yellow. Dorsal sepal elliptic, narrowed towards the apex; lateral sepals much broader, blunt. Petals slightly shorter than the lateral sepals, oblong, sub-spathulate, blunt. Lip much curved from its auricled base; the side lobes large, broad; the terminal lobe sub-orbicular, bifid, deflexed; the disc with a central papillose crest.
The Pursuit
This is one of the rarest of all Dendrobiums of the region. In my three years of study in the region, I found only 4 plants. Even though I found this plant two seasons earlier, I had to put a lot of hard work to see them in bloom. The location was at 4800 ft on the edge of a protected area. The motorable road which connected my place of stay and the nearest trek road to the location was at altitude of 380 ft. From that 380 ft to 4800 ft, the trek was almost vertical. The most difficult trek I had ever made in the region. The route was through the edge of a vertical steep rocky mountain almost straight up the hill. The trek though a zig-zag route will always be safer than a straight climb. This location was on the fringes of a protected area, as such the villagers were not given permission by the authorities to build a wider and safer trek route there fearing habitat loss of some rare trees of that forest. Every day the climb took more than 4 hours. The plant also showed very unusual behaviour. The buds took considerably long time to be in bloom. As I was had minimum literature on this species I was unable to judge its blooming time. Since I did not want to miss those flowers that particular season and the rarity of the species made me regularly visit the location. For 17 days I took that steep route to the location, and worked for more than 14 hours a day including the long drive from my place of stay. Finally, I produced this wonderful photograph, probably the only one of its kind from its natural habitat.