拟蜘蛛兰属 ni zhi zhu lan shu

Authors:Authors: Xinqi Chen & Jeffrey J. Wood

Herbs, small, monopodial, epiphytic herbs similar in habit to Taeniophyllum. Roots photosynthetic, usually well developed, radiately spreading, stout. Stems very short. Leaves distichous, small, few, basal, articulate to sheath, sometimes absent or only present in growing season. Inflorescences lateral, racemose, gradually elongating; peduncle and rachis narrowly winged; peduncle with many foliaceous persistent sterile bracts; rachis angled, several flowered; floral bracts persistent, alternate, distichous; sterile and floral bracts usually with stipulelike appendages on both sides decurrent to form wings on peduncle and rachis. Flowers very small, not opening widely. Sepals and petals similar, fused at base forming a short tube; lip entire or 3-lobed, with a subapical introrse bristlelike appendage, base with a short, saccate spur. Column short, footless; pollinia 2, waxy, globose, entire, attached by a common stipe to a large viscidium.

About 47 species: Java, Borneo, Sulawesi and the Philippines, eastward through New Guinea to the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, and other Pacific islands, with the center of distribution in New Guinea; one species in China.