Dendrobium baileyi, commonly known as the blotched gemini orchid,[1] is an epiphytic or lithophytic orchid in the family Orchidaceae and has arching stems and flowering stems with one or two spidery, yellow flowers with dark purple spots emerging from leaf axis. It grows in tropical North Queensland, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
Dendrobium baileyi is an epiphytic or lithophytic herb that has arching stems bearing well-spaced but partly overlapping leaves NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and about 8sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. The leaves are dark green and narrow lance-shaped to narrow egg-shaped. The flowering stems are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and emerge from the stem opposite to leaf axils. There are one or two flowers on a pedicel NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long, each flower NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. The flowers are resupinate, spider-like and yellowish green with many dark purple spots and blotches. The sepals are NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and about 4sigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide and the petals are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and about 1sigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide. The labellum is curved, about 10sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and 6sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide with three lobes. The side lobes are reddish and triangular and the middle lobe has a hairy white ridge near its base. Flowering occurs from January to February.[2]
Dendrobium baileyi was first formally described in 1874 by Ferdinand von Mueller from a specimen on a forested hillside near Rockingham Bay and the description was published in the Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae.[3] [4] The specific epithet (baileyi) honours Frederick Bailey.
The blotched gemini orchid grows on trees in rainforest between the McIlwraith Range and Townsville in Queensland and in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.