虾尾兰属 xia wei lan shu

Authors:Authors: Xinqi Chen & Jeffrey J. Wood

Herbs, epiphytic, monopodial. Stems ascending or sometimes pendulous, short or elongate, enclosed in leaf sheaths. Leaves several to many, distichous, flat, jointed and sheathing at base, apex unequally bilobed. Inflorescences lateral, arching to pendulous, racemose, several to many flowered; peduncle and rachis ± fleshy. Flowers small. Sepals free; lateral sepals usually larger, base adnate to column foot. Petals often smaller than sepals; lip immovably attached to end of column foot, spurred, 3-lobed; lateral lobes on both sides of spur entrance, ascending, rather large; mid-lobe ± spreading forward, very small; spur often spreading horizontally, almost continuing line of column foot, ± laterally compressed, narrowed toward tip, thickly walled especially near base of mid-lobe, without appendages inside. Column short, thick, with a distinct foot; rostellum short, 2-lobed; pollinia 2, waxy, subglobose, entire, attached by a common broad and flat stipe to a solitary viscidium.

About five species: mainly in SE Asia; one species in China.