Herminium R. Br.
零餘子草屬
Slender terrestrial herbs with fleshy tuberoids. Stems erect, with few cauline or basal leaves, sheathing
at base. Leaves narrow, decreasing in size upward. Inflorescence terminal, spicate, densely manyflowered.
Flowers greenish; sepals connivent, subequal, dorsal one often connate with petals forming
hood; petals narrower; lip continuous to base of column, elongate, spreading or pendulous, usually 2- or
3-fid, base often concave or shallowly saccate, spurless; column stout; anther hood-like, basally adnate
to column, cells parallel or slightly divergent below, with staminodes on outer side, staminodes globose
or clavate, stipitate; pollinia 2, sectile, with short caudicle and large viscidium; stigma 2-lobed, lobes
distinctly separated and elevated, pulvinate, not stalked; rostellum thin, plate-like, triangular, short bifid
at apex and embedding viscidium; ovary nearly sessile, with narrow neck.
About 30-40 species, Eurasia and subtropical Asia, half of them in China. One species in Taiwan.
