兜蕊兰属 dou rui lan shu

Authors:Authors: Xinqi Chen, Stephan W. Gale & Phillip J. Cribb

Herbs, terrestrial, small. Tuber globose to ovoid, fleshy, pubescent. Stem erect, slender, glabrous, with 1 basal leaf. Leaf ovate to narrowly elliptic, base attenuate into amplexicaul sheath. Inflorescence erect, terminal, with several to more than 10 flowers arranged in a short, ± dense raceme; floral bracts very small, scalelike. Flowers resupinate, usually yellowish to green, small; ovary twisted, fusiform. Sepals free; dorsal sepal erect, often broad, concave, forming a hood with petals; lateral sepals longer and narrower than dorsal sepal. Petals concave; lip reflexed, ligulate or linear, small, base often dilated, spurless, entire. Column short, with 2 lateral appendages; anther erect, with 2 divergent, hooded locules and broad connective; pollinia 2, clavate, granular-farinaceous, sectile, each attached to a small viscidium; rostellum triangular; stigma 2-gibbous, attached to base of rostellum.

Six species: from the Himalayas through S China to Japan; five species (three endemic) in China.