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Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday
My head is spinning trying to figure out the subsections of Dendrobium, and how to identify them (especially if I have a hybrid), and then how to care from them given that information. Does anyone have a recommended YouTube video or website that gives a good primer?
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Go to the Internet Orchid Species Photo Encyclopedia (orchidspecies.com) and do some reading. The various Sections are described at the top of the Dendrobiums. Then follows an alphabetical list of Den. species. They are divided into Sections by how the flowers look, so once you figure that out, you will be able to make a good guess as to Section when you see a flower.
In general most species within each Section have similar water seasonality, different Sections have differing water seasonality than other Sections, but species within one Section don't necessarily share similar plant nor flower size, temperature nor light requirements within a Section. Dens. occur from sea level to high elevations.
A weakness of IOSPE is that flowers are shown close up, but plants often are not. You will eventually learn to distinguish various Sections by their plant shape and how they carry leaves. You can use an Internet search to pull up several different species from each Section and see what the plants look like.
The commonest Sections in cultivation include section Dendrobium, also called nobile types, mostly with long stems and frequently deciduous; Dendrocoryne, Australian species including Den. speciosum; Densiflora, most of which produce a dangling spike of many flowers from near the top of pseudobulbs that are very narrow at the base but much wider above; Formosae, most of which have black hairs on the stems and large white flowers; Latouria, with white flowers wider than they are long, often nodding; Phalaenanthe, with rounded flowers resembling those of the unrelated Phalaenopsis; and Spatulata, large plants with antelope horn flowers.
You can look up hybrids on orchidroots.com. It will show all the species ancestors. From this you can guess how to grow it from the cultural requirements of its ancestors. There are a lot of hybrids including antelope and
Den. phal ancestors, but their culture is similar.
Primer on dendrobium types and their care
Linear Mode
