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Dendrobium bifalce; photograph snotch from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BYsnotch from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dendrobium bifalce Lindl.

Orchidaceae · Lesser Sunda Is., Maluku +4 · listed by its genus as an orchid

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Dendrobium bifalce, photograph snotch from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDendrobium bifalce, photograph snotch from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDendrobium bifalce, photograph snotch from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDendrobium bifalce, photograph snotch from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDendrobium bifalce, photograph 阿橋 HQ, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDendrobium bifalce, photograph Motohiro Sunouchi, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
17.1°C
Record low 9.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jan, Feb and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,840mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–42DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, December to March (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Dendrobium bifalce, commonly known as the native bee orchid, is an epiphytic or lithophytic orchid in the family Orchidaceae. It has spindle-shaped pseudobulbs with up to four leathery leaves and up to ten pale green or greenish yellow flowers with purplish markings. It grows on trees and boulders in rainforest in tropical North Queensland, Australia and in New Guinea.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Dendrobium bifalce", 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 sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,288 mm of 1,787 mm) falls in December to March. The temperature curve is flat, 3.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,787 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,288 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 370 mm, driest month September at 12 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,501 mm to 2,649 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,840 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,787 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 42 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 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 17.1 °C, the absolute minimum 9.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.8 °C in July and August (across the grid cells of the range 18.9 °C to 24.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.9 °C in January and December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.1 °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: 63 to 67% 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 -150 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Dendrobium bifalce through the yearWarmest months January, February and December, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest months July and August, mean nightly low 21.8 °C; 1,787 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, southern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°40°36.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER9.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 27–42RH 63–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 24 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 °C29 / 28–3029 / 28–3028 / 28–2927 / 27–2827 / 26–2825 / 25–2825 / 24–2725 / 24–2726 / 25–2828 / 26–2928 / 27–3029 / 28–30
Night °C25 / 23–2625 / 23–2625 / 23–2624 / 22–2624 / 21–2623 / 20–2522 / 19–2422 / 19–2423 / 20–2523 / 22–2524 / 23–2625 / 24–26
Rain mm370 / 248–424358 / 254–439364 / 251–421188 / 129–34188 / 42–23848 / 18–17231 / 14–19625 / 10–15512 / 6–16129 / 20–17578 / 67–181196 / 165–264
DLI35 / 33–3634 / 32–3533 / 32–3532 / 30–3429 / 27–3227 / 25–3027 / 26–3131 / 30–3538 / 36–4042 / 38–4342 / 37–4339 / 35–40
RH %67 / 65–7167 / 66–7167 / 65–7166 / 64–7065 / 64–6964 / 63–6864 / 62–6763 / 61–6663 / 61–6664 / 61–6664 / 62–6766 / 64–69
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 24 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (24 records in those cells; 7 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 2056:6466 (-12.825, 143.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.9 °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 24 distinct grid cells holding 24 of the 31 in-range records (7 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2056:6466 (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 -13.00_143.125, lapse-corrected -150 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 9 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.
NativeLesser Sunda Is., Maluku, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Queensland · 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 marker-12.5, 143.2 · in the densest population, 18 records (32% 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 57 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 24 of them in the land cells it reads, of 31 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 48 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 26 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 57 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 bifalce, photograph 1did not loadDendrobium bifalce, photograph 2did not loadDendrobium bifalce, photograph 3did not loadDendrobium bifalce, photograph 4did not loadDendrobium bifalce, photograph 5did not loadDendrobium bifalce, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: snotch from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (4); 阿橋 HQ, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Motohiro Sunouchi, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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

Cynometra lenticellata Cynometra lenticellata Cascading Bean<!-- Photo: CC BY, Alan BellBrachychiton velutinosus Brachychiton velutinosus Brush kurrajong Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve FitzgeraldDischidia ovata Dischidia ovata Watermelon dischidia Photo: CC0, author not statedGmelina dalrympleana Gmelina dalrympleana Grey Teak Photo: CC BY, Kai SquiresSterculia shillinglawii Sterculia shillinglawii Lacewood Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve FitzgeraldHoya macgillivrayi Hoya macgillivrayi Red Hoya Photo: CC BY, J. Wrigley

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 Bulbophyllum oncidiochilum; Callista bifalcis; Dendrobium breviracemosum; Dendrobium chloropterum; Doritis bifalcis and 5 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
Lindl.
Native to
Lesser Sunda Is., Maluku, Bismarck Archipelago +3
Wild records
57 in range · 48 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 -13.00_143.125, lapse-corrected -150 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 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 nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
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 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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