Cryptostylis R. Br.
隱柱蘭屬
LEOU, Chong-Sheng
Terrestrial herbs with short rhizomes and thick clustered roots. Rhizomes densely noded, much branched, horizontal or ascending at apex. Leaves few, radicle, long petiolate, petioles subterete, sulcate toward leaf base. Inflorescence scapose, erect, bearing cataphylls at base, sheathed above, terminating in a dense raceme. Flowers non-resupinate, opening successively and long-lasting; sepals and petals subequal, narrow, inrolled at margins, spreading; lip superior, erect, strongly concave at base and hiding column, acute or acuminate at apex, slightly recurved at margins, velvety on upper surface, unlobed; column stout, erect, with prominent auricles (staminodes) on lateral sides, auricles connate with short filament, often bilobed; anther erect, on dorsal side of column; clinandrium not perfectly developed; pollinia 2, attached to viscidium, 2-partite, powdery, viscidium paste-like, crowning apex of pollinia; stigma, entire, terminal on column; rostellum short, triangular, slightly protruding.
About 20 species, ranging from North India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines throughout southeast Asia and Indonesia to Australia. Two species in Taiwan.
