Cadetia Gaudich.,
in Freyc., Voy. Bol. (1826) 422. t. 33
Sympodial epiphytes. Pseudobulbs present, consisting of one internode. Leaves 1, without sheathing base, glabrous, dorso-ventrally flattened, articulate, duplicate, leathery. Inflorescence terminal, carrying a single flower. Flowers small to medium-sized, resupinate, often white. Lateral sepals connate at the base, forming a mentum. Petals free, usually much narrower than the sepals. Lip adnate to the column-foot, without spur, not mobile. Column-foot present. Pollinia 4, solid-waxy, caudicles absent, stipe absent, viscidium absent. Ovary glabrous or with soft spine-like hairs or papillae, when glabrous usually 2- to 6-winged.
Distribution
Java, Borneo, Philippines, Less. Sunda Islands, Sulawesi, Moluccas, New Guinea, Australia, east to Fiji; about 50 species.
Distribution in the Philippines
Basilan; 1 species [Cadetia microphyton (L.O.Williams) Christenson].
Habitat
Epiphytes in lowland and montane forest, rarely terrestrial in steep mossy banks.
Notes
Whether regarded as a section of the very large genus Dendrobium or as a genus in its own right, there can be no doubt that Cadetia forms a very distinctive and natural group of species. They are small plants with one-leaved slender stems or small pseudobulbs. The short, one-flowered inflorescences arise from the apex of the stem in the axil of the leaf. In section Sarcocadetia an additional inflorescence arises from a point just below the apex of the stem near the base of the abaxial side of the leaf. Only the Australian C. taylorii is fairly widespread in amateur collections.