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, stems less than 1m tall, rhizomatous. Leaves 1 to several, plicate, deciduous, reniform-ovate to lanceolate. Inflorescence terminal, 1-to several-flowered; peduncles short to long; floral bracts leafy. Flowers showy. Dorsal sepal erect or porrect over lip; lateral sepals united to form a synsepal. Petals spreading, linear-lanceolate, sometimes twisted. Lip deeply saccate, margins inrolled. Column porrects; staminodes peltate-ovate to trowel-shaped; anthers 2, behind staminode.
Species Description
Plant 14-30cm tall; rhizome elongate, 2-4mm in diameter. Stem erect, short, sparsely pubescent, 4-20cm long; basal tubular sheaths 2-3. leaves 3-4, closely spaced on stem, elliptic-ovate, acute, slightly pubescent on upper surface, glabrous beneath, ciliate, 5-10 x 2.4-4.7cm. Inflorescence 1-flowered; peduncle pubescent above , 3-10cm long; floral bract lanceolate, acuminate 3.2-6 x 0.5-1.3cm. Flower very fragrant, c .6cm acrose; claret and green, crimson-purple or reddish-chocolate, column yellow; pedicel and ovary long, pubescent, 1.6-2.9cm long. Dorsal sepal ovate-elliptic, shortly acuminate to acute, glabrous, 2.4-2.8 x 1.8-2cm; synsepal deeply concave, oblong-lanceolate, acute, glabrous, 1.8-2.2cm long. Petals lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, acute, pubescent at base, ciliate 2.3-3.4 x 0.6-0.7cm. Lip slipper-shaped, bulbous, bilaterally compressed, mouth small, with a dentate margin, 2.8-3.4cm long; lateral lobes incurved, creased. Column 2-horned, 7-9mm long; staminode trowel-shaped to weakly cordate, obtuse to truncate, longitudinally concave, 0.7-1 x 0.44-0.55cm; stigma larg, warty, c.4mm long.
