Ania Lindley; Ascotainia Ridley; Mischobulbum Schlechter; Mitopetalum Blume.

Herbs, terrestrial, glabrous. Rhizome with persistent or decaying tubular scales; roots not branched, villous, with root hairs. Pseudobulb erect, rarely prostrate, with 1 or few internodes. Leaf 1 per pseudobulb, deciduous, articulate, petiolate or not, petiole not sheathing, convolute, plicate or not, glabrous; blade elliptic to (ob)ovate, base decurrent along petiole, margin straight, undulate to crenulate. Inflorescence an erect raceme arising heteranthous on a leafless shoot or lateral from base of pseudobulb, often alternating with fertile shoots; peduncle with few internodes; scales tubular; floral bracts persistent. Flowers resupinate, open simultaneously. Sepals and petals ovate, elliptic, or obovate to linear, entire; lateral sepals decurrent on column foot when present. Lip immobile, entire or 3-lobed, with or without spur, saccate; keels (2 or)3-9. Column straight, with narrow seams that continue onto column foot when present; column foot absent or inconspicuous (rarely long), flat or swollen, without spur; anther cap with 2 thecae, usually 4-locular; pollinia 8, rarely 6 in (3 or)4 pairs, subequal, hard, caudicles present, stipe and viscidium absent. Capsule ellipsoid.

The genus Tainia has been monographed by Turner (Orchid Monogr. 6: 43-100. 1992) and treated in a broader sense to include Ania and Mischobulbum by de Vogel in Pridgeon et al. (Gen. Orchid. 4(1): 158-161. 2005).

Tainia hualienia S. S. Ying (Coloured Ill. Indig. Orchids Taiwan 1: 321. 1977) was described from Taiwan but was not included in either Fl. Taiwan (1978) or Fl. Taiwan, ed. 2 (2000). Its original description seems to be indicative of belonging to Oreorchis rather than Tainia.

About 32 species: Sri Lanka and India, north to China and Japan, south from Myanmar to New Guinea and the Pacific islands; 13 species (two endemic) in China.

(Authors: Chen Xinqi (陈心启 Chen Sing-chi); Jeffrey J. Wood)