Cephalanthera L. C. Rich.
頭蕊蘭屬
Terrestrial herbs with short rhizomes and fibrous roots. Stem erect, sometimes flexuous, leafy. Leaves cauline, sessile, plicate, sheathing at base, more or less arranged in 2 rows. Raceme or spike terminal, with lax or sub-dense flowers, bracteate; bracts usually decreasing in size upwards. Flowers suberect, sepals and petals subsimilar, free, connivent; lip included, shorter than sepals and petals, erect from base of column, 3-lobed in outline when expanded, divided into a hypochile and epichile through a middle thin constricted area, hypochile concave or saccate at base, with erect side lobes embracing column, epichile hinged to hypochile, subspreading, usually ribbed above; column long, erect, semiterete; anther erect, large, hinged to top of column by a short stalk, extending beyond rostellum; pollinia 2, soft and mealy, 2-partite, without caudicle or viscidium; stigma broad, entire; rostellum short or obscure. Capsule erect.
About 12 species, widespread in the north temperate regions and extending to the Himalaya and North Africa. One species in Taiwan.
