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Dendrobium officinale; photograph (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2024-10-10

Dendrobium officinale Kimura & Migo

Orchidaceae · China South-Central, China Southeast +4 · listed by its genus as an orchid

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Dendrobium officinale, photograph (c) 大澤風季 ohsawa_Fuki, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dendrobium officinale, photograph (c) 大澤風季 ohsawa_Fuki, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dendrobium officinale, photograph (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dendrobium officinale, photograph (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dendrobium officinale, photograph (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dendrobium officinale, photograph (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY) 33 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Coldest month, mean nightly low
8.5°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,397mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
15–36DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 5 records in 5 grid cells. The records.

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 no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,640 mm of 3,451 mm) takes 8 months, March to October. Mean temperature moves 17.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to April.

Rain

3,451 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,640 mm of it March to October. Wettest month June at 501 mm, driest month December at 179 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,649 mm to 5,054 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,397 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,451 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: 15 to 36 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 8.5 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 4.3 °C to 12.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.0 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 8.5 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 5 records in 5 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Dendrobium officinale through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 8.5 °C; 3,451 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°5°10°15°20°25°30°35°°C · day and nightcold quarter02004006008001000mm rainDLI 15–36RH 58–70%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 DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C12 / 11–1513 / 12–1515 / 14–1719 / 18–2022 / 21–2325 / 23–2628 / 26–2928 / 27–2927 / 25–2723 / 22–2418 / 18–2014 / 13–17
Night °C9 / 4–129 / 5–1211 / 8–1415 / 12–1718 / 16–2021 / 20–2324 / 24–2625 / 24–2623 / 22–2519 / 17–2215 / 12–1811 / 7–14
Rain mm223 / 81–319192 / 123–319276 / 213–491277 / 243–495315 / 254–503501 / 482–883343 / 283–384305 / 254–330360 / 289–431263 / 148–322217 / 113–329179 / 75–299
DLI15 / 13–1919 / 16–2225 / 22–2631 / 29–3133 / 32–3330 / 28–3136 / 33–3934 / 33–3728 / 28–3225 / 22–2519 / 16–1915 / 13–18
RH %58 / 55–6159 / 56–6260 / 57–6361 / 59–6463 / 61–6668 / 67–7270 / 68–7167 / 66–7065 / 63–6761 / 58–6460 / 57–6158 / 56–61

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 28% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 1.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.0 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 5 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (5 records in those cells; 3 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 1192:6208 (30.375, 130.425). 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 5 of the 8 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1192:6208 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 28% land and none of the 0 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 30.50_130.625, lapse-corrected +472 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 509 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, China Southeast, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, 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 marker23.71, 121.354 · in the densest population, 66 records (63% of those in range)
Kew's description“pseudobulbous epiphyte” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 105 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 5 of them in the land cells it reads, of 8 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 35 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 10 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 97 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 105 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 officinale, photograph 1did not loadDendrobium officinale, photograph 2did not loadDendrobium officinale, photograph 3did not loadDendrobium officinale, photograph 4did not loadDendrobium officinale, photograph 5did not loadDendrobium officinale, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) 大澤風季 ohsawa_Fuki, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

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

Microtropis japonica Microtropis japonica Celastraceae Photo: CC0, author not statedLycoris traubii Lycoris traubii Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedEuonymus centidens Euonymus centidens Celastraceae Photo: CC BY, 賴碧珠Euonymus carnosus Euonymus carnosus Fleshy-flowered spindle tree Photo: CC BY, 謝麗霦Luisia teres Luisia teres Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedDeparia lancea Deparia lancea Simple-leaf false spleenwort Photo: CC BY, 岸本年郎

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 Callista stricklandiana; Dendrobium catenatum; Dendrobium funiushanense; Dendrobium pere-fauriei; Dendrobium stricklandianum and 5 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
Kimura & Migo
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan +3
Wild records
105 in range · 35 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 30.50_130.625, lapse-corrected +472 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (28% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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
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 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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