盾柄兰属 dun bing lan shu

Authors:Authors: Xinqi Chen & Jeffrey J. Wood

Herbs, epiphytic or lithophytic, tiny, clump-forming. Pseudobulbs crowded together, flattened globose, usually wider than long, 2- or 3-leaved, covered by a sheath that disintegrates into a fine fibrous network or into radiating fibers; sheaths white, with reticulate or other veins. Leaves appearing at or after anthesis; blade elliptic, ovate, or oblong, sometimes minutely hairy on margin, apex obtuse or acute. Inflorescence 1-flowered (rarely 2- or 3-flowered), borne either from base of pseudobulb, breaking through sheath, or from apex of a developed pseudobulb; peduncle and pedicel very short, flower appearing sessile at edge or center of pseudobulb; floral bract conspicuous, enclosing lower part of flower. Flowers orange-red to deep dull red, sometimes flushed with greenish yellow. Dorsal sepal connate with lateral sepals at least at its base; lateral sepals connate nearly, or completely, to apex, forming a tube and a mentum with column foot. Petals spatulate to oblong, narrow, smaller and shorter than sepals, sometimes hairy; lip completely enclosed in tube, very small, much shorter than petals, obscurely 3-lobed, usually recurved; disk with a basal callus. Column short but distinct, with conspicuous foot; pollinia 8, waxy, in 2 groups, each group attached to a viscidium; rostellum rather large, often covering stigma entrance.

About 11 species: mainland Asia, from India through Thailand and Indochina to Peninsular Malaysia, with one outlying species in Borneo; one species in China.