Dendrobium speciosum Sm.

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘[It is] an orchid whose low price enables most growers to possess it, and whose peculiarities of constitution generally defy all attempts at making it blossom’.  One of the few to succeed [by 1850] was the Rev. C. Fox Chowner of Bletchingly, whose plant was ‘about 12ft in circumference, reckoning from the end of the flower racemes, of which it had 35, each averaging about 75 flowers, of the most delicate cream colour, veined with violet.  It is impossible to do justice to the appearance of such a specimen, nor is it easy even to imagine the extent of its beauty.’  [Gard. Chron 1850].

‘Dendrobium speciosum is a New Holland plant, that has been long cultivated in our stoves; but which, as far as I am aware, has rarely produced blossoms.  In the present season, (Jan. 1831) a noble flowering specimen was communicated to me, from the Liverpool Botanic Garden, by the Messrs. Shepherds.’  [BM t.3074/1831].  ‘Scarcely any plant is more common than this in collections near London; so readily is it cultivated.’  [BR f.1610/1833].  Introduced to Britain in 1824.  [JD].

History at Camden Park

Listed in the 1850 and 1857 catalogues [O.25/1850].  Some large specimens grow in the gardens.  Probably collected in NSW by Macarthur or one of his colleagues.

Notes

Plants previously collectively identified as variants of Dendrobium speciosum have recently been re-classified as species of Thelychiton by Clements and Jones.  See also Dendrobium rex M.A.Clem. & D.L.Jones.