Thin Feather Orchid  |  

Dendrobium callitrophilum, Family Orchidaceae, also known as Thin Feather Orchid, is an
epiphytic orchid with narrowly linear, dark plum-coloured pseudobulbs, growing 5Ð30 cm
high and 1Ð3 mm wide. It has one to two thin, leathery leaves. The plant bears one to two
racemes that grow to 25 mm long and bear 1Ð6 flowers. Flowers are up to 10 mm by 15 mm,
greenish-yellow with a cream centre when first open but quickly turning apricot-coloured.
The labellum (lip) has purplish bars and three yellow keels. Sepals and petals are up to 14 mm
long and narrow, while the labellum is short and 6 mm long. Flowering occurs from August to
September and flowers last a week (Gray & Jones, 1989; Jones, 2006).
Dendrobium callitrophilum was renamed Tropilis callitrophilis by Clements & Jones (2002)
as they had reinstated the genus Tropilis as distinct from Dendrobium. This name change is
followed in Jones (2006) and Clements (2008), but was not supported by Adams et al. (2006).
Dendrobium callitrophilum is considered to be a synonym of Tropilis callitrophilis in the
Australian Plant Census (CHAH, 2008)