Dendrobium fulgidum from Papua New Guinea is one of the most striking of orchids with concolour flowers. All of the segments are a bright, glowing orange in all specimens seen. The species' author, Rudolf Schlechter, described the flower colour as " bright orange-red" (Schlechter, 1911) whereas J.J.Smith, when he described the variety Dendrobium fulgidum var. angustilabre recorded his "worthy collector" K.Gjellerup as noting the flower colour as "orange" (Smith 1916). This variety was established on the basis of narrower petals and labellum than the type variety. Van Bodegom (1973) described the flower as "bright orange……. without any other colour markings". He also went on to say that the flower was not very attractive, a statement with which I cannot agree. I will have to concede though, that in his years in northern Sumatra and later Dutch New Guinea he would have seen much more of the spectacular and bizarre in orchids that I could only dream of observing in-situ.

Another reference to the species is in Miller (1978) where the photograph is of a yellow-flowered orchid. To my mind this photograph is of another taxon in Dendrobium Section Pedilonum. A feature of D. fulgidum is the dorsal sepal which points obliquely upwards. The labellum is also characteristic in that it is bent downwards and barely sticks out between the lateral sepals. These features are prominent in the Schlechter (1927) and Smith drawings, and in the black and white photograph in Van Bodegom's original Dutch-text Enige Orchideeën Van West Nieuw Guinea. The photograph accompanying this article also show these features, but they are absent in the Millar photograph.

Ignoring the sea level reference in Millar "in trees overhanging Milne Bay island beaches", the recorded altitudinal range for this species is from 300-1300 m.

Most of the plants in cultivation appear to have originated as seedlings from Stocker’s Nursery at Malanda, Queensland. Geoff Stocker reports (pers.comm) that the source of the seed was Lake Kutubu and Erave in Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea at from 600-800 m. The plants grow as epiphytes on shrubs.

Plants of this species become pendulous with age. Flowering commences when the thin growths mature at about 40-50 cm long. The flowers hang in untidy clusters at the end of the pseudobulbs. Several peduncles can be produced in the cluster, each with a dozen or so flowers. Stocker advises that they will continue to flower back along the old pseudobulbs to about one third their length. The species has a reasonable degree of tolerance of warm conditions, having successfully survived a number of hot Sydney summers in the bushhouse. It needs to be grown under 70% shadecloth or even two layers of 50%. It will grow a little better and flower earlier in life if grown in a glasshouse with a minimum summer temperature of about 30° C. Specimens will defoliate if kept over winter at less than about a 7° C minimum so a heated glasshouse is recommended for D. fulgidum in southern latitudes. The species can be mounted on a treefern slab which can cope with its pendulous habit. Its also successfully cultivated in 80 mm plastic pots in treated bark in the 50-100m diameter range. Water frequently as the root system is thin and wiry and needs to develop well in the pot to cater for the top-heavy plant at maturity.

The depicted plant was grown by Sid Batchelor and photographed by David Banks.

	van Bodegom, J. (1973). Enige Orchideen Van West Niew Guinea. Technische Hogelschool, Twente.
	Millar, A. (1978). Orchids of Papua New Guinea an Introduction. Australian National University Press, Canberra.
	Schlechter, R. (1911-1914). Die Orchidaceen von Deutsch-Neu-Guinea. Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni., Beih. 1: 1-1079.
	Schlechter, R. (1928). Figuren-Atlas zu den Orchidaceen von Deutch-Neu-Guinea. Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni., Beih. 21:t. 1-372
	Smith, J.J. (1916). Novae Guinea, Vol.XII (4): 274-469.