Object Details
Description
Alexandra’s Dendrobium began its European debut as something of an enigma. Collected in 1909 by the German orchidologist Rudolf Schlechter, he named it for his wife Alexandra, who assisted in compiling the account of his New Guinea orchid collecting. It is fortunate that drawings were made of this orchid, because after Schlechter brought the orchid back to the greenhouse of their Berlin estate, both the orchid and the pressed type specimen at the Berlin Herbarium were destroyed in the bombings of World War II. Given this orchid’s similarity to D. spectabile and the fact that none remained in collections, it began to be speculated that maybe D. alexandrae was a fluke, just a variation on D. spectabile. However, in the 1970s a Mrs. Andrée Miller, who had conducted many orchid expeditions to New Guinea, donated her orchids to a botanic garden in Florida, and by 1984 one of slow-growing orchid bloomed with a strange flower. Finally, this enigmatic orchid could be compared to the old drawings, and definitively identified.
Bloom Time (Northern Hemisphere)
October to February
Pollination Syndrome
Possibly wasp
Provenance
From a cultivated plant of known (indirect) wild origin
Accession Number
2017-0552A
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Life Form
Epiphytic
Bloom Characteristics
Inflorescence is 6-10" (15-25 cm) long with 3-7 green-white flowers with brown markings on lip. Flowers are 2-3" (5-7.6 cm) across, and rarely 4" (10 cm) across.
Foliage Characteristics
Bluish-green
Fragrance
Honey
Range
Papua New Guinea
Habitat
Cool mist forests; 3280-3940ft (1000-1200m)
See more items in
Smithsonian Gardens Orchid Collection
Common Name
Alexandra's Dendrobium
Alexandra's Dragon Orchid
Group
[vascular plants]
Class
Equisetopsida
Subclass
Magnoliidae
Superorder
Lilianae
Order
Asparagales
Family
Orchidaceae
Subfamily
Epidendroideae
Genus
Dendrobium
Species
alexandrae
Data Source
Smithsonian Gardens
Topic
Orchids
Living Collections
Link to Original Record
Record ID
ofeo-sg_2017-0552A