金耳石斛 jin er shi hu

Callista hookeriana (Lindley) Kuntze; Dendrobium fimbriatum Hooker var. bimaculosum Tang & F. T. Wang.

Stems pendulous, cylindric, 30-80 cm, 4-7 mm in diam., rigid, unbranched, with many nodes, internodes 2-5 cm, pale yellow when dry. Leaves alternate along entire stem, ovate-lanceolate or oblong, 7-17 × 2-3.5 cm, leathery, base slightly contracted and dilated into sheaths, upper part asymmetric, apex long acute; leaf sheath tightly embracing stem. Inflorescences 1 to several, along distal part of current season’s mature leafy stems, 4-10 cm, laxly 2-7-flowered; peduncle 2.5-5 cm, often spreading outward at 90° angle to stem; basal sheaths 3 or 4, overlapping, lowermost shortest, upper longest; floral bracts ovate-lanceolate, 4-6 mm, apex acute. Pedicel and ovary 3-4 cm. Flowers spreading, thinly textured, golden yellow, disk with a purple blotch on each side. Dorsal sepal elliptic-oblong, 24-35 × 9-16 mm, 7-veined, acute; lateral sepals oblong, 24-35 × 9-16(or more) mm, 7-veined, base oblique, apex subobtuse or acute; mentum conic, ca. 8 mm. Petals oblong, 24-35 × 10-18(or more) mm, 7-veined, margin entire, apex subobtuse; lip suborbicular, 20-30 mm wide, adaxially densely pubescent, base shortly clawed, claw with a callus, margin compound fimbriate. Column ca. 4 mm, upper part enlarged; anther cap conic, glabrous, front margin denticulate.

Lithophytic on rocks in mountain valleys, epiphytic on tree trunks in mountain forests; 1000-2300 m. SE Xizang, W Yunnan [E and NE India].

H. P. Wood (Dendrobiums, 641. 2006) considered Dendrobium hookerianum to be on the borderline between D. sect. Dendrobium and D. sect. Holochrysa.