Family Description
Plants perennial, terrestrial, epiphytic or lithophytic, sometimes mycotrophic; growth monopodial or sympodial; roots adventitious, often aerial, sometimes assimilatory. Stems usually leafy, often with one or more swollen internodes forming pseudobulbs. Leaves usually entire, alternate or opposite, often distichous, plicate or convolute; membranous to coriaceous, often terete or reduced to scale-like bracts, usually sheathed. Inflorescences erect or pendent; spicate, racemose or paniculate, 1- to many-flowered; basal, lateral or terminal. Flowers small to large; zygomorphic; sessile or variously pedicellate; resupinate or non-resupinate. Sepals three, free or connate; dorsal sepal often dissimilar to lateral sepals; lateral sepal sometimes adnate to the column to form a saccate, conical or spur-like mentum. Petals three (medial petal distinguished from the others as the lip), usually free. Lip entire or variously lobed, often with ornamented calluses, with or without a basal spur or nectary. Column short or long, with or without a basal foot, winged or lacking wings; fertile anther one (rarely two or three), terminal or incumbent, cap-like or dehiscing; pollen often agglutinated into discrete masses called pollinia; pollinia mealy, waxy or horny, soft or hard, sectile or not, 2,4,6 or 8, sessile or attached by caudicles or stipes to one or two viscidia forming a pollinarium; stigma 3-lobed, midlobe often modified to form a rostellum. Ovary inferior, unilocular with parietal placentation or rarely 3-locular with axile placentation. Fruit a capsule, usually opening laterally; seeds numerous, dust-like.
Genus Description
Plants small, terrestrial; rhizome decumbent, roots nodal, often reduced to ridges or lumps on rhizome. Leaves soft, few, petiolate. Inflorescence terminal, loosely few-flowered, racemose. Flowers small, resupinate. Sepals slender, connate halfway to form a sepaline tube with the petals. Lip erect, channelled, 2-callose at base; hypochile sac-shaped with several papillose glands along the lateral veins; mesochile short, narrow; epichile 2-lobed, rarely subsigmoid and entire. Column short with 2 stylidia at apex; stylidia commonly as long as the prominent, bifid rostellum; stigmas 2, lateral; pollinia 2, on a short stipe.
Species Description
Plant 15-20cm tall; rooting from nodes; roots fleshy, thick, pubescent. Stem 8-9cm tall, covered in sheathing leaf bases. Leaves 4-5, oblong-lanceolate, acute to acuminate, veined and reticulate, petiolate; petiole sheathing at base, 5-12 x 2.5-4.5cm; sheath hyaline, c.8mm across; petiole 2-4cm long. Inflorescence 6-to 10-flowered; peduncle c.4.5cm long, pubescent, with 2 sheathing, lanceolate, apiculate bracts of c.2 x 0.5cm; rachis c.6.5cm long, pubescent, with 2 sheathing, lanceolate, apiculate bracts of c.2 x 0.5cm; rachis c.6.5cm long, pubescent; floral bracts elongate-lanceolate, apiculate, hyaline, longer than the flowers, glabrous, glabrous, c.2 x 0.4cm. Flowers c.1 x 0.5cm, glabrous; sepals and petals pale green, lip white; ovary sessile, twisted, pubescent, c.7 x 3mm. Dorsal sepal elliptic, obtuse, sparsely pubescent on the dorsal surface, boat-shaped, 3-veined, forming a hood with the petals over the column, joined at the base to the petals, c.9 x 6mm; lateral sepals joined at base, lanceolate, acute, 3-veined, dorsally pubescent, c.1-0.8cm; hypochile bowel-shaped, with a central lamella and two raised, stalked, sea-anemone like calluses arising from the lateral veins, margins infloded towards the mesochile, c.5 x 4mm; mesochile short, constricted; epichile broadly 2-lobed, lobes quadrate, finely papillose, margins wavy-dentate. Column with two fleshy, warty wings at base, c.4mm long; rosetellum bifid, c.4mm long; stigmas 2, lateral; anther dorsal; pollinia 2, deeply divvided, granular.
