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Furrowed Pencil Orchid

Dendrobium wassellii

Furrowed Pencil Orchid
Photo: Chhe (talk), Public domain

Dendrobium wassellii is a small epiphytic orchid from Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, forming creeping stems with cylindrical, furrowed leaves and sprays of white flowers. It grows on rainforest trees and needs bright, humid, well-drained conditions, so it is best kept mounted or in a fast-draining basket.

Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Epiphyte, Orchid
Light
Bright indirect
Water
Water when the mount or medium is nearly dry, and mist or soak roots regularly in warm weather.
Soil
Mounted on bark or in a very coarse, fast-draining orchid mix.
Temperature
18–30 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Hard
Native range
Queensland (Cape York Pen.)
Climate
wet tropical

About

Dendrobium wassellii, commonly known as furrowed pencil orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to a small area on Cape York Peninsula. It is an epiphytic or lithophytic orchid with branched stems, cylindrical, furrowed leaves and flowering stems with up to sixty crowded white flowers with a yellow labellum.

Where it grows

The furrowed pencil orchid grows near the top of rainforest trees, especially hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) in the Iron and McIlwraith Ranges on Cape York Peninsula.

Other Dendrobium plants

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 wassellii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

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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