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Dendrobium bellatulum; photograph (c) Павлик Лисицын, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Павлик Лисицын, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-03-15

Dendrobium bellatulum Rolfe

Orchidaceae · China South-Central, Assam +5 · listed by its genus as an orchid

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Dendrobium bellatulum, photograph (c) Павлик Лисицын, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dendrobium bellatulum, photograph (c) Павлик Лисицын, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dendrobium bellatulum, photograph snotch from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDendrobium bellatulum, photograph snotch from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDendrobium bellatulum, photograph snotch from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDendrobium bellatulum, photograph snotch from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons 15 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
7.8°C
Record low 4.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Mar and Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,303mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Dendrobium bellatulum (enchanting dendrobium) is a species of orchid. It is native to the eastern Himalayas (Yunnan, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh) and northern Indochina (Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos).

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Dendrobium bellatulum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Dendrobium

Dendrobium is a genus of mostly epiphytic and lithophytic orchids in the family Orchidaceae. It is a very large genus, containing more than 1,800 species that are found in diverse habitats throughout much of south, east and southeast Asia, including China, Japan, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, New Guinea, Vietnam and many of the islands of the Pacific. Orchids in this genus have roots that creep over the surface of trees or rocks, rarely having their roots in soil. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Dendrobium", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as an orchid, listed under the genus Dendrobium in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “pseudobulbous epiphyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,760 mm of 2,247 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 19.4 °C against a yearly mean of 18.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Rain

2,247 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,760 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 376 mm, driest month January at 13 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,670 mm to 2,598 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,303 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,247 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 7.8 °C, the absolute minimum 4.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 10.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 9.6 °C to 11.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.9 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 73% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +704 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Dendrobium in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “pseudobulbous epiphyte”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Dendrobium bellatulum through the yearWarmest months March and April, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 10.9 °C; 2,247 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°5°10°15°20°25°30°35°31.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER4.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 27–40RH 58–73%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 5 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C21 / 21–2223 / 23–2525 / 24–2725 / 24–2824 / 23–2623 / 22–2423 / 22–2422 / 21–2422 / 21–2422 / 21–2321 / 20–2219 / 19–21
Night °C11 / 10–1211 / 11–1313 / 12–1415 / 14–1616 / 15–1716 / 15–1816 / 15–1716 / 15–1716 / 15–1715 / 14–1513 / 13–1412 / 10–13
Rain mm13 / 9–1725 / 17–3381 / 45–90169 / 107–202289 / 227–310241 / 183–288254 / 215–339289 / 259–409376 / 272–415311 / 193–353149 / 86–18350 / 25–64
DLI33 / 30–3337 / 35–3840 / 38–4139 / 37–4032 / 31–3330 / 24–3030 / 23–3129 / 21–3027 / 24–2727 / 26–2727 / 26–2828 / 26–28
RH %62 / 57–6458 / 52–6059 / 51–6163 / 56–6569 / 67–7072 / 71–7472 / 72–7473 / 73–7673 / 71–7471 / 69–7270 / 64–7168 / 61–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 5 grid cells holding the 12 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1559:5768 (12.025, 108.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 5 distinct grid cells holding 12 of the 12 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1559:5768 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 12.00_108.125, lapse-corrected +704 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1598 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Assam, East Himalaya, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker12.083, 108.367 · in the densest population, 16 records (57% of those in range)
Kew's description“pseudobulbous epiphyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 28 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 12 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 14 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 9 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 16 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 28 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Dendrobium bellatulum, photograph 1did not loadDendrobium bellatulum, photograph 2did not loadDendrobium bellatulum, photograph 3did not loadDendrobium bellatulum, photograph 4did not loadDendrobium bellatulum, photograph 5did not loadDendrobium bellatulum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Павлик Лисицын, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); snotch from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (4).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Callisia warszewicziana Callisia warszewicziana Commelinaceae Photo: CC0, Sobeida MoralesCymbidium insigne Cymbidium insigne Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, David J. StangPrunus salasii Prunus salasii Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez MarcialQuercus corrugata Quercus corrugata Fagaceae Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez MarcialDichaea glauca Dichaea glauca Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Tenoch Cuauhtémoc PerezSarcococca coriacea Sarcococca coriacea Buxaceae Photo: CC BY, Jyotsna Nag

Other Dendrobium 264 in the reference

Dendrobium aberrans Dendrobium aberrans Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, rdutaDendrobium acerosum Dendrobium acerosum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Cheongweei Gan Dendrobium aciculare Orchidaceae Dendrobium acinaciforme Orchidaceae Dendrobium aduncum Orchidaceae Dendrobium aemulum Dendrobium aemulum Ironbark feather orchid Photo: CC BY, Sofia Zvolanek Dendrobium alaticaulinum Orchidaceae Dendrobium alexandrae Dendrobium alexandrae Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, OrchiDendrobium aloifolium Dendrobium aloifolium Aloe-Like Dendrobium Photo: CC BY, Gerard ChartierDendrobium amabile Dendrobium amabile Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, KENPEIDendrobium amethystoglossum Dendrobium amethystoglossum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Orchi Dendrobium amphigenyum Orchidaceae all 265 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Dendrobium bellatulum var. cleistogamia. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
Rolfe
Native to
China South-Central, Assam, East Himalaya +4
Wild records
28 in range · 14 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 12.00_108.125, lapse-corrected +704 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 8 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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