A Guide to Dendrobium of New Guinea

The orchid genus Dendrobium was named and described in 1799 by the Swedish botanist Olof Peter Swartz. At that time he only knew some 20 species, the great majority of which would not even count as true dendrobiums by modern standards. Many of his ‘Dendrobium‘ species came from tropical America where, as we now know, not a single species of Dendrobium occurs naturally.   This initial confusion was soon clarified by botanists like Blume and especially Lindley, whose studies helped to create a more natural delimitation of the genus.