掌唇兰属 zhang chun lan shu

Authors:Authors: Xinqi Chen & Jeffrey J. Wood

Sarothrochilus Schlechter.

Herbs, epiphytic, monopodial, large. Stems ascending, climbing or pendulous, long or short, with many nodes. Leaves many, distichous, usually lorate, with nodes, base amplexicaul-sheathing, sessile, jointed. Inflorescences axillary, paniculate, often opposite to leaves, laxly several to many flowered. Flowers usually opening widely, small to medium-sized. Sepals free, similar. Petals slightly smaller; lip fleshy, adnate at base to column, immovable, base shortly spurred or slightly saccate, 3- or 5-lobed; lateral lobes erect; mid-lobe usually ± hairy on adaxial surface; spur, if present, with a hairy ligulate appendage on its back wall. Column short, stout, often hairy, foot indistinct; pollinia 4 in unequal pairs, waxy, subglobose, unequal in size, with a common narrow stipe and a solitary ovate viscidium.

About 14 species: from India through SE Asia to Indonesia and the Philippines; three species in China.