63 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct
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Summary
Dendrobium jonesii, commonly known as oak orchid is a species of epiphytic or lithophytic orchid endemic to far north Queensland. It has spindle-shaped pseudobulbs, up to seven thin, dark green leaves and up to thirty five crowded, star-like, fragrant cream-coloured or white flowers with purple markings on the labellum.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Dendrobium jonesii", 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 (1,397 mm of 1,980 mm) falls in December to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.9 °C against a yearly mean of 22.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to September.
Rain
1,980 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,397 mm of it December to March. Wettest month February at 426 mm, driest month September at 34 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,246 mm to 3,255 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,874 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,980 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: 25 to 43 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 13.8 °C, the absolute minimum 10.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 15.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 10.9 °C to 20.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.2 °C in December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 70% 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 -12 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
Mean daily high from 21 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Jan, Feb and Dec; mean nightly low from 16 °C in Jun, Jul and Aug to 23 °C in Jan and Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 3 months in a row that tie for it. 1,980 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 54 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 10.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 28 / 26–29 | 28 / 26–29 | 27 / 25–28 | 25 / 23–28 | 24 / 21–26 | 22 / 20–25 | 21 / 19–25 | 22 / 20–25 | 24 / 23–27 | 26 / 25–28 | 27 / 26–29 | 28 / 27–30 |
| Night °C | 23 / 20–25 | 23 / 20–25 | 22 / 18–24 | 20 / 17–23 | 19 / 14–22 | 16 / 12–21 | 16 / 11–20 | 16 / 12–20 | 18 / 14–21 | 20 / 16–22 | 21 / 18–24 | 22 / 19–25 |
| Rain mm | 410 / 287–534 | 426 / 318–598 | 362 / 215–578 | 181 / 94–389 | 89 / 33–230 | 47 / 15–141 | 40 / 12–131 | 35 / 11–93 | 34 / 7–85 | 46 / 24–90 | 111 / 70–173 | 199 / 149–272 |
| DLI | 37 / 35–39 | 34 / 32–36 | 34 / 32–36 | 31 / 29–33 | 27 / 25–29 | 25 / 24–28 | 26 / 25–29 | 31 / 30–33 | 38 / 37–40 | 43 / 41–44 | 43 / 41–44 | 41 / 39–42 |
| RH % | 69 / 65–71 | 70 / 66–73 | 69 / 64–72 | 68 / 64–72 | 67 / 63–72 | 66 / 61–70 | 65 / 61–69 | 64 / 61–68 | 63 / 60–66 | 64 / 60–66 | 65 / 61–68 | 66 / 63–69 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Evert Materman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Bryobium queenslandicum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Murray Fagg
Dendrobium fleckeri Apricot Cane Orchid Photo: CC0, author not stated
Dendrobium taylorii Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Evert Materman
Elaeocarpus bancroftii Johnstone River-almond Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve Fitzgerald
Pandanus gemmifer Pup pandan Photo: CC BY, Richard Littauer
Diploglottis diphyllostegia Native Tamarind Photo: CC BY-SA, Evert MatermanOther Dendrobium 264 in the reference
Dendrobium aberrans Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, rduta
Dendrobium acerosum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Cheongweei Gan Dendrobium aciculare Orchidaceae Dendrobium acinaciforme Orchidaceae Dendrobium aduncum Orchidaceae 
Dendrobium aemulum Ironbark feather orchid Photo: CC BY, Sofia Zvolanek Dendrobium alaticaulinum Orchidaceae 
Dendrobium alexandrae Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Orchi
Dendrobium aloifolium Aloe-Like Dendrobium Photo: CC BY, Gerard Chartier
Dendrobium amabile Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, KENPEI
Dendrobium amethystoglossum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Orchi Dendrobium amphigenyum Orchidaceae all 265 ›Names & registers
Also known as Dendrobium ruppianum; Thelychiton jonesii. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -18.50_146.250, lapse-corrected -12 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.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 rulesopenalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.