Species
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Dendrobium aphyllum (Roxb.) C.E.C.Fisch.

Orchidaceae

Climate known 61 photographs Orchid
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Dendrobium aphyllum, commonly known as the hooded orchid or 兜唇石斛 is a species of orchid native to Bangladesh, southern China, the eastern Himalayas, and Indochina.

Text from Wikipedia, “Dendrobium aphyllum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

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 ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Dendrobium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
(Roxb.) C.E.C.Fisch.
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast, Assam +11
Wild records
196 in range· 89 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
May, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2189mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Jul 443 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a orchid by the genus Dendrobium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 2189 mm a year, wettest July at 443 mm, driest December at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 13 °C (archetype minimum for a orchid, above the 6.5 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Callista aphylla (Roxb.) Kuntze; Cymbidium aphyllum (Roxb.) Sw.; Dendrobium aphyllum var. cucullatum (R.Br.) P.K.Sarkar; Dendrobium aphyllum var. katakianum I.Barua; Dendrobium cucullatum R.Br. and 9 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a orchid by the genus Dendrobium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1745 mm of 2189 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.0 °C against a yearly mean of 22.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2189 mm a year, wettest July at 443 mm, driest December at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2189 mm a year at the habitat, 1745 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 443 mm, driest December at 14 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1177 mm to 3655 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 13 °C (archetype minimum for a orchid, above the 6.5 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 6.5 °C, the absolute minimum 0.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 11.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells 3.8 °C to 15.9 °C), warmest day 29.1 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 6.5 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a orchid (grouped by the genus Dendrobium, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 13 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 22 °C in Jan to 29 °C in May; mean night from 12 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2189 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 151 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 0.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost37.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)0.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter02004006008001000mm rainDLI 23–35RH 56–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 151 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C22 / 13–2824 / 15–3027 / 18–3328 / 22–3429 / 23–3229 / 23–3128 / 23–3128 / 23–3128 / 23–3027 / 21–2925 / 18–2823 / 15–27
Night °C12 / 4–1613 / 5–1817 / 8–2120 / 10–2322 / 14–2423 / 17–2523 / 17–2523 / 17–2522 / 16–2520 / 12–2216 / 9–1913 / 6–16
Rain mm16 / 6–3730 / 10–6065 / 20–113146 / 55–274246 / 153–429378 / 147–656443 / 167–867377 / 207–734301 / 162–525138 / 93–21135 / 13–7614 / 7–28
DLI25 / 19–3330 / 23–3735 / 28–4135 / 30–4132 / 30–3628 / 24–3325 / 20–3127 / 22–3126 / 24–2927 / 24–3025 / 21–2923 / 18–31
RH %58 / 55–6456 / 52–6556 / 49–6360 / 52–6664 / 60–6967 / 64–7369 / 65–7668 / 65–7468 / 65–7264 / 61–6961 / 57–6559 / 56–63

Each figure is the median across the 151 grid cells holding the 182 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1370:5631 (21.475, 101.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 151 distinct grid cells holding the 182 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1370:5631 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 21.50_101.875, lapse-corrected -302 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 671 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, China Southeast, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Nepal, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaya
Kew's description“pseudobulbous epiphyte or lithophyte” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker26.86, 91.09 · in the densest population, 44 records (22% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 196 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 89 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 255 km away. 29 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 14 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 196 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Dendrobium aphyllumDendrobium aphyllumDendrobium aphyllumDendrobium aphyllumDendrobium aphyllumDendrobium aphyllumDendrobium aphyllumDendrobium aphyllum

Photographs: (c) Sandipan Das, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Dendrobium aphyllum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

In situ seed baiting to isolate germination-enhancing fungi for an epiphytic orchid, Dendrobium aphyllum (Orchidaceae)
Xiao-Meng Zi, Chun-Ling Sheng, Uromi Manage Goodale, Shi‐Cheng Shao (2014) · Mycorrhiza
Isolation and screening of extracellular enzymatic activity of endophytic fungi isolated from Thai orchids
Kathawut Sopalun, Siriluck Iamtham (2020) · South African Journal of Botany
Discrimination of the rare medicinal plant Dendrobium officinale based on naringenin, bibenzyl, and polysaccharides
Xiaomei Chen, FangFei Wang, Yunqiang Wang, Xuelan Li (2012) · Science China Life Sciences
Five new phenolic compounds from Dendrobium aphyllum
Dan Yang, Liang-Yan Liu, Zhong‐Quan Cheng, Feng-Qing Xu (2014) · Fitoterapia
In vitro propagation of Dendrobium aphyllum (Orchidaceae)—seed germination to flowering
MM Hossain, Madhu Sharma, Promila Pathak (2012) · Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology
Comparative molecular cytogenetics of major repetitive sequence families of three Dendrobium species (Orchidaceae) from Bangladesh
Rabeya Begum, Sheikh Shamimul Alam, Gerhard Menzel, Thomas Schmidt (2009) · Annals of Botany
Aromatic compounds from Dendrobium aphyllum
Yegao Chen, Jiangtao Li, Liqin Wang, Ying Liu (2008) · Biochemical Systematics and Ecology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Dendrobium 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 22 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.