Cytherea Salisbury, nom. illeg. superfl.

Herbs, terrestrial, small. Tuber globose-ovoid to cylindric, small, sometimes with withered remains of previous year’s tuber still attached, with several fleshy, filiform roots at base and a small coralloid rhizome beneath. Leaf solitary, arising directly from tuber apex, ovate to elliptic, plicate, conspicuously narrowed at base into a long petiole-like stalk, apex acute. Inflorescence terminal, erect, taller than leaf, with several tubular sheaths, 1(or 2)-flowered. Flower resupinate, showy. Sepals and petals similar, free, spreading, linear to lanceolate, apex acute; lip pendulous, with a broad spurlike process at base and 2 small auricles placed laterally at its mouth, apically broadened into an ovate blade; blade spreading, apical margin sometimes slightly undulate or involute, with a pubescent patch on disk; spurlike process adpressed to abaxial surface of blade, cornute, with a large mouth, apex tapering and 2-lobed. Column erect, slightly curved, with long, broad wings; anther subterminal; pollinia 4, in 2 pairs, waxy, sessile on a square viscidium. Capsule ellipsoid.

One species: circumboreal across North America, Scandinavia, and Asia, and in montane parts of North America and Asia.

(Authors: Chen Xinqi (陈心启 Chen Sing-chi); Stephan W. Gale, Phillip J. Cribb)