羊耳蒜属 yang er suan shu

Authors:Authors: Xinqi Chen, Paul Ormerod & Jeffrey J. Wood

Alipsa Hoffmannsegg; Anistylis Rafinesque; Diteilis Rafinesque; Dituilis Rafinesque; EmpusaLindley; Empusaria Reichenbach; Iebine Rafinesque; Leptorkis Thouars; Malaxis sect. PlatystylisBlume; Mesoptera Rafinesque; Paliris Dumortier; Platystylis (Blume) Lindley (1830), not Sweet (1828); Pseudorchis Gray (1821), not Séguier (1754); Sturmia Reichenbach (1826), not Hoppe (1799).

Herbs, terrestrial, lithophytic, or epiphytic, rhizomatous, rarely mycotrophic and leaves reduced to scales. Stems pseudobulbous, sometimes appearing as a many-noded, fleshy stem, clustered or not, when young covered by sterile bracts. Leaves 1 to several, linear to ovate or elliptic, plicate or not, thinly textured to leathery, basal or cauline (terrestrial species), or arising from apex or subterminal nodes of pseudobulbs (epiphytic species), articulate or not at base. Inflorescences erect to pendulous, racemose, laxly or densely many flowered; floral bracts persistent, small. Flowers small or medium-sized, yellow, green, orange, or purple, often translucent, usually resupinate. Sepals spreading, dorsal sepal free, lateral sepals sometimes fused for part or all of their length. Petals free, often reflexed, often linear and unlike sepals; lip often reflexed, ovate, oblong, or flabellate, entire or lobed, usually with a basal callus, lacking a spur. Column incurved-arcuate, clavate, long, winged at apex and sometimes at base; anther cap attached by a slender filament, 2-locular; pollinia 4 in 2 pairs, waxy, ovoid, bilaterally flattened, each pair with a small viscidium; rostellum thinly textured, blunt. Capsule subglobose to ellipsoid, often ± with 3 obtuse ridges.

About 320 species: well represented in tropical Asia, New Guinea, Australia, SW Pacific islands, and the subtropical and tropical Americas, with a single species in Europe and two in North America; 63 species (20 endemic) in China.