Species of the Month – April 2015
Dendrobium crepidatum Lindl. & Paxton (syn Dendrobium lawianum Lindl.)
Dendrobium crepidatum is an epiphytic orchid commonly found in the Western Ghats. This is widely distributed in South East Asiatic countries as well. In Southern India, the distribution of this species is recorded from forests of Northern Western Ghats to the Sothern Western Ghats. This species starts flowering in the month of March and continues to flower in April. When in flower it is devoid of any foliage. It has very short inflorescence and the inflorescence emerge from the leafless nodes. Usually it has seen with at most two flowers per inflorescence. Also when the foliage dries up a thin and netted sheath can be seen on the pseudobulbs. 
Flower: The creamish white coloured flowers usually last for a week or so. Size of the flower is around 2-3cms making it one of the bigger flowered Dendrobiums in the Western Ghats. The pseudobulbs are pendulous in nature and new shoots start emerging soon after the flowering season.
Habitat: The plant itself is not very big. It is observed that the plant grows in tufts with canes (pseudopubulbs) reaching 12-15inches in length. The plant loves bright light but not seen directly in the Sun. Its seen growing on trees belonging to Terminalia, Careya, Lagerstroemia spp. which are commonly found the Western Ghats. 
Not only D. crepidatum there are many other orchid species which are found on such trees. So having these trees around in our forests means greater chances of this and other species of orchids to make their home.
References:
1. http://www.theplantlist.org
2. Wild Orchids in Karnataka – Dr Anand Rao et al.
3. Introduction to Orchids – Abraham and Vatsala
4. Wild Orchids of Northern Western Ghats – Satish Pande et al.
Article by: Ravee Bhat
Photos by: Srikanth Parthasarathy