Dendrobium aemulum R.Br.

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘It is impatient of removal to the bush house or green house, but flowers freely till it dies.’ [Fitzgerald].  ‘Attached to a rough piece of bark or the husk of a cocoa-nut, it forms a desirable plant for suspending in a drawing room, for which purpose the agreeable scent of the blossoms and the long period that they continue in perfection are additional recommendations.’  [MB p.69/1844].  It was first sent to Kew Gardens in 1823 by Allan Cunningham and flowered there in 1825.  [BM t.2906/1829].  

History at Camden Park

Listed in the 1850 and 1857 catalogues [O.15/1850].  Macarthur grew both of the forms that are found in NSW.  The commonest form grows chiefly on the Ironbark (Eucalyptus sideroxylon), indigenous in the Camden area, and has short, stout pseudobulbs.  This form occurs naturally on the Camden Park estate.  In a letter to Loddiges’ Nursery on the 6th January, 1845 he describes a ‘Dendrobium sp. like aemulum, pseudobulbs much longer and more slender and growing only on a large Tristania.’  [MP A2933-2, p.28].  This is the form that grows on brush-forest trees such as Ceratopetalum apetalum (Coachwood) and Tristania conferta (Brush Box), with slenderer pseudobulbs.  This form is recognised by Jones as a separate species, Tropilis radiata D.L.Jones & M.A.Clem.  [Jones, Blombery].

Notes