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Dendrobium bigibbum
Dendrobium bigibbum, commonly known as Cooktown orchid or mauve butterfly orchid, is an epiphytic or lithophytic orchid in the family Orchidaceae. It has cylindrical pseudobulbs, each with between three and five green or purplish leaves and arching flowering stems with up to twenty, usually lilac-purple flowers. It occurs in tropical North Queensland, Australia and New Guinea.
It is illegal to collect the Cooktown orchid from its natural environment without a licence. Commercially cultivated plants like a dry, sunny position with a minimum of watering and a temperature that does not fall below 13 °C (55 °F). Specimens need a bush-house in cooler climates.
This orchid species grows on trees and rocks in rainforest, coastal scrub, near rivers, in swamps and open forest in tropical Queensland. The variety bigibbum also occurs in southern New Guinea and var. schroederianum is found in the Tanimbar Islands of Indonesia.
Slender Cane Orchid · Dendrobium aduncum · Ironbark orchid · White butterfly orchid · Buttercup orchid · Dendrobium albosanguineum · Dendrobium amabile · Dendrobium amboinense · Amethyst-colored Dendrobium · Dendrobium amplum · Dendrobium angulatum · Unscented Dendrobium
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dendrobium bigibbum 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.
