Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Erect perennial herbs.

Stems: With short, branched, leafless rhizomes, stems erect, crowded or short and forming pseudobulbs.

Roots: Roots arising in clumps at stem bases.

Leaves: Leaves simple. Leaves several per pseudobulb, alternate, usually large and plicate. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in racemose inflorescences. Flowers bisexual (perfect), 1 to several, axillary, usually large. Sepals and petals distinct, spreading; labellum much larger than other floral parts, adnate to base of column, the distinct portion embracing the column, entire or 3-lobed, apex usually irregularly serrate, undulate, or occasionally entire, base with a conspicuous spur or saccate. Stamen 1, adnate to and surrounding the style forming a column. Column inclined toward labellum, unappendaged, often variable within the same species; anther curved downward. Pollinia 8, joined in 2 groups of 4, slightly flattened, waxy, with slender caudicles. Ovary inferior, 3-carpellate; rostellum vestigial, thin or absent; stigma recessed into the anterior apex of column, unlobed, occasionally with small appendages.

Fruit: Capsules.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range: