Dendrobium cancroides
Dendrobium cancroides, commonly known as the crab orchid, is an epiphytic or lithophytic orchid in the family Orchidaceae. It has long, narrow, flattened stems with up to fourteen leaves in the upper half and one or two star-shaped reddish brown flowers with a yellow centre. It grows in rainforest, often in trees overhanging streams in tropical North Queensland. Description. "Dendrobium cancroides" is an epiphytic or lithophytic herb with flattened stems long and wide. There are between eight and fourteen leaves long, wide mostly scattered along the upper half of the stem. One or two resupinate flowers long  and wide are arranged in leaf axils. The flowers are reddish brown with a yellow centre and do not open widely. The sepals and petals are curved and warty, the sepals long and wide, the petals a similar length but only about half as wide. The labellum is about long, wide and curved with three lobes. The lobes are triangular, the middle lobe with a white ridge near its base and long white hairs on its edge. Flowering occurs from December to May. Taxonomy and naming. "Dendrobium cancroides" was first formally described in 1947 by Trevor Edgar Hunt and the  description was published in the journal the "North Queensland Naturalist" from a specimen collected on the Mount Bellenden Ker range. The specific epithet ("cancroides") is derived from the Latin word "cancer" meaning "crab" and the suffix "-oides" meaning "like", "resembling" or "having the form of". Distribution and habitat. The crab orchid usually grows on trees in rainforest, often on branches overhanging watercourses. It occurs between the McIlwraith Range and the Johnstone River in Far North Queensland.