9. Prescottia Lindley, Exotic Fl. 2: plate 115. 1824 (as Prescotia).
[For John Prescott (d. 1837), a British botanist resident in Russia who traveled widely in northern Asia]
James D. Ackerman
Herbs, terrestrial. Roots fasciculate, fibrous or thick and fleshy, villous. Stems: rhizomes sometimes branched. Leaves basal, petiolate or sessile, not articulate, membranous. Inflorescences terminal, many-flowered spikes; peduncles partially covered by sheathing bracts. Flowers not resupinate, sessile; sepals spreading or reflexed, rarely distinct, basally connate forming short cup, thin; petals adnate to column and sepal cup, narrow, thin; lip distalmost in flower, attached to column foot, clawed, often basally auriculate distal to claw, deeply concave, often enclosing column, very fleshy; column and foot adnate to sepal cup when present, minute, column blunt; anther abaxial, erect; pollinia 4, slightly flattened, soft, mealy; caudicles absent; stigmas entire. Fruits capsules, ovoid to ellipsoid.
Species 24 (1 in the flora): tropical and subtropical regions, North America, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America.
Originally the name was spelled as “Prescotia.” Since then and until recently, most authors, with the exception of W. Voth (1976) and J. D. Ackerman (1989), spelled it with two ts. “Prescotia” should be treated as an orthographic error (J. D. Ackerman 1995), and the spelling with two ts should prevail
