金石斛属 jin shi hu shu

Authors:Authors: Xinqi Chen & Jeffrey J. Wood

Desmotrichum Blume, Bijdr. 329. 1825, not Kützing (1845, nom. cons.); Ephemerantha P. F. Hunt & Summerhayes, nom. illeg. superfl.

Herbs, epiphytic. Basal rhizome branching, creeping or prostrate; roots smooth. Aerial shoots (sympodia) clambering, ascending or pendulous, terminating in a 1-leaved pseudobulb consisting of 1 internode, erect and bushy or drooping and laxly branched, new branches arising at base of pseudobulb, sometimes also from other nodes along erect stems also terminated by a pseudobulb; these aerial sympodia produce progressively smaller units distally, remaining dependent on basal roots. Pseudobulbs usually ± laterally compressed, clavate or fusiform. Leaves apical, narrowly to oblong-elliptic, leathery, base slightly contracted, subsessile, not sheathing. Inflorescence producing solitary flowers each on 1 or more short, subterminal, tufted peduncles, borne in front of or behind leaf base, or both, gregariously blooming in response to a stimulus. Flowers fragile, ephemeral, lasting less than a day, thin and membranous. Sepals and petals acute. Mentum conspicuous, deflexed, conic. Petals narrower than sepals; lip 3-lobed or entire, with a distinct hypochile (including lateral lobes), mesochile, and epichile (blade or mid-lobe), 2- or 3-keeled; lateral lobes erect; mid-lobe variable in shape, straight, curved, or very undulate-pleated and transversely bilobulate. Column short, with a long foot; pollinia 4 in 2 pairs, naked, i.e., without a stipe or caudicle, subglobose.

Between 65 and 70 species: S and SE Asia, Australia, Pacific islands; nine species (five endemic) in China.