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 medium-sized to large, epiphytic, monopodial. Stems usually stiffly erect. Leaves disticthous, usually decurved, linear, oblong, rigid, V-shaped in section, apex pracemorse, sessile, jointed. Inflorescence axillary, laxly racemose. Flowers fleshey, resupinate. Sepals and petals free, elliptic-obovate, twisted or undulate, often tessellated, margins reflexed, narrowed at base. Lip immobile, 3-lobed, shortly spurred; spur unadorned internally. Column short, stout, lacking a foot; rostellum broad, shelf-like; stipes and viscidium short, broad; pollinia 2, grooved.
Species Description
Plant epiphytic, 12-30cm tall; roots piercing through leaf sheaths, 2-3mm wide. Stem stout, covered by leaf sheaths, 7.5-15cm long; sheaths overlapping, weakly veined, 1-1.5cm long. Leaves recurved, coriaceous, ape x truncately 3-dentate, 7.5-12.5 x 0.6-1.8cm. Inflorescence 2- to 6-flowered; peduncle glabrous, sheathed, 2-3cm long; floral bracts broadly ovate to broadly triangular, obtuse, cup-shaped, 4-6mm long. Flowers 3.7-5cm across; sepals snd petals yellow to green, golden-yellow to white, striped with violet-purple to red-brown; pedicel and ovary slender, ridged, 1.5-3cm long. Dorsal sepal incurved, spathulate-oblong, obtuse, 2-2.5 x 0.5-0.6cm; lateral sepals similar, pendent to spreading, 2-2.8 x 0.5-0.7cm. Petal sincurved, linear to elliptic, obtuse to rounded, 1.8-2 x 0.2-0.4cm. Lip fleshy, saccately spurred, 3-lobed, 2-2.1 x 1.2-1.4cm; lateral lobes erect, small, broadly triangular; mid-lobe oblong, tepering, truncate,upper surface rugulose with 2 slender elongate processes on apecal margin, apical sinus with a short point; spur saccate,conical, 6-9mm long. Column 4-6 x 2mm; anther cap 3-3.5mm wide. Fruit long-stalked, cylindric- 0b0void, 7-9 x 0.5-0.9cm.
