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.

[3][4][5] The genus Dendrobium was first formally described in 1799 by Olof Swartz and the description was published in Nova Acta Regiae Societatis Scientiarum Upsaliensis.

[6][7] In 1981, Friedrich Brieger reclassified all terete-leaved dendrobiums from Australia and New Guinea into a new genus, Dockrillia and in 2002 David Jones and Mark Clements separated the genus into smaller genera, including Thelychiton, Tropilis, Vappodes and Winika but all of these genera are regarded as synonyms by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families.

[1] The genus Dendrobium was first divided into sections for infrageneric classification by Rudolf Schlechter in 1911–1914 based on morphological characteristics.

[8] Orchids in the genus Dendrobium have adapted to a wide variety of habitats, from the high altitudes in the Himalayan mountains to lowland tropical forests and even to the dry climate of the Australian desert.

[10] Several hybrids in this genus have been registered and named after notable persons and institutions: The grex Dendrobium Berry gx[12] has received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.