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 terrestrial, small to medium; rhizome creeping, fleshy, rooting at nodes; stems short, remote, leafy. Leaves fleshy, broad to linear, often petiolate. Inflorescence terminal,racemose, laxly to densely few-to many-flowered. Flowers usually small, resupinate, tubular or subcampanulate, often glandular-pubescent. Dorsal sepal erect; lateral sepals spreading. Petals smaller than the sepals, usually hyaline, adnate to the dorsal sepal to form a hood over the column. Lip more or less adnate to the base and sides of the column, 3-lobed; hypochile saccate, enclosing 2-glands; mesochile linear, claw-like; epichile transversely oblong to reniform. Column porrect, short, lacking wings or keels; rostellum elongate, bifid at apex; pollinia 2, deeply divided, granular; stigma 2.
Species Description
Plant 15-25cm tall. Stem with 2 or 3 sheaths at base and 3 or 4 leaves towards ape x , 3-9cm tall. Leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate, clustered at top of stem, with inflated hyaline sheaths, withering during flowering, 1.4-3.7 x 0.7-1.5cm; petiole e x panded into a scarious sheath at base, c.1.5cm long. Inflorescence subdensely 10-to 17-flowered; peduncle longer than the stem, pubescent, sheathed, 8-16cm long; sheaths 2-3, distant, linear-lanceolate c.2cm long; rachis 4-5-7cm long; floral bracts lanceolate, acuminate, softly pubescent, 6-7mm long. Flowers 2-3mm long; sepals dull, gray to olive green, petals and column white, lip dull pink with a bright yellow ape x ; pedicel and ovary sparsely villose, 3-4mm long. Sepals subsimilar, ovate-oblong, with a few la x hairs, 2-2.5 x 1-1.5mm; dorsal sepal concave; lateral sepals smaller than the dorsal sepal, 1-veined. Petals narrowly oblong-elliptic, c.2mm long. Lip e x ceeding the sepals, boat-shaped at the base, with 2 oblong calluses enclosed in its fold, 3-3.5 x 3.8-4.3mm; epichile with 2 subquardate, oblique, diverging, terminal lobes. Column short, stout, ape x curving forwards, c.1.5mm long; anther horizontally; rostellum long; pollinia clavate; stigmas 2, small. Fruit swollen, ridged, narrowly ellipsoid, 5-7 x 2.5-3.5mm.
