Cadetia Gaud.
in Freycinet, voy. Uranie 422, t.33 (1826)

Introduction: This genus of small epiphytes is found mainly in New Guinea. Some sixty species are known. The genus is allied to Dendrobium.

Derivation of genus name: Named by Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupre in 1826 in honour of Charles Louis Cadet de Gassicourt

Type species: Cadetia umbellatum Gaud.

Characteristics of genus: Plants small, growing in tufts or small clumps, stems with a single node. Leaf apical, one per stem, ovate to lanceolate or linear, stiff, fleshy, apically bilobed. Flowers single, rarely two at a time, arising from papery bracts at the stem apex; mostly a white perianth with some yellow patches at the base of the mid-lobe or with patches of lavander, rose or purple marks on the labellum and parts of the column, one species is distinctly bicoloured; perianth segments free; lateral sepals joined at base to form a spur; labellum usually three lobed and pubescent on the anterior portion; lateral lobes joined to the column foot. Column short with short blunt or sharp stelids at anther apex; column foot often pubescent.

Number of sections and/or subsections in genus:

Species shown here: Cadetia toadjanum
drawn by Neville H.S. Howcroft

View photo: Cadetia species

Habitat: Mainy species inhabit rain forest but in the highlands they are found growning in grasslands in the peat and moss as a pseudo-terrestrial. Also common along roadsides on the face of road cuttings and benches. Among many species we know of is C. wariana Schltr.

Conservation status: not endangered