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White butterfly orchid

Dendrobium affine

Also called Malakmalak, Matngala

Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Tree, Epiphyte, Orchid
Water
Likes moisture
Native range
Lesser Sunda Is. to W. New Guinea
Climate
seasonally dry tropical

About

Dendrobium affine, commonly known as the white butterfly orchid, malakmalak or matngala in Australian Aboriginal languages, is an epiphytic orchid in the family Orchidaceae. It has cylindrical pseudobulbs, each with up to ten leaves and flowering stems with up to twenty white flowers with yellow or purple markings on the labellum. It occurs in northern Australia, New Guinea and Timor, where it grows on the bark of trees.

Where it grows

Dendrobium affine is a bark epiphyte and grows on trees in moist places such as rainforest, on stream banks and in paperbark swamps. It is found in northern parts of the Northern Territory including Melville Island, the Kimberley region of Western Australia, and the Moluccas. It occurred on Timor in the past but may now be extinct there.

Other Dendrobium plants

Slender Cane Orchid · Dendrobium aduncum · Ironbark orchid · Buttercup orchid · Dendrobium albosanguineum · Dendrobium amabile · Dendrobium amboinense · Amethyst-colored Dendrobium · Dendrobium amplum · Dendrobium angulatum · Unscented Dendrobium · Antelope orchid

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dendrobium affine by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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