指柱兰属 zhi zhu lan shu

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

Pantlingia Prain.

Herbs, terrestrial, small. Tubers solitary, globose, small; subterranean stem above tuber erect, elongate, becoming fleshy and rhizomatous apically, producing lateral droppers that form new tubers at their tips. Stem slender, glabrous, unbranched, with membranous cataphylls at each node. Leaf solitary, cauline, green. Inflorescence terminal, racemose, 1- to few flowered; floral bracts foliaceous, smaller than leaf. Flowers resupinate, suberect, shortly pedicellate. Sepals free, narrow, similar but lateral sepals slightly oblique and shorter than dorsal sepal. Petals similar to lateral sepals; lip broad, base with fleshy, deeply lobed callus. Column erect, incurved toward apex, sometimes keeled ventrally and with narrow wings at margin, lacking column foot; anther terminal, 2-locular; stigma concave, with prominent digital appendage at posterior margin; pollinia 4, in 2 pairs, granular-farinaceous, lacking caudicle and viscidium.

About ten species: Indonesia, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands, with a few species reaching China, the Himalayas, N India, and Japan; one species in China.