Family Description
Plants perennial, terrestrial, epiphytic or lithophytic, sometimes mycotrophic; growth monopodial or sympodial; roots adventitious, often aerial, sometimes assimilatory. Stems usually leafy, often with one or more swollen internodes forming pseudobulbs. Leaves usually entire, alternate or opposite, often distichous, plicate or convolute; membranous to coriaceous, often terete or reduced to scale-like bracts, usually sheathed. Inflorescences erect or pendent; spicate, racemose or paniculate, 1- to many-flowered; basal, lateral or terminal. Flowers small to large; zygomorphic; sessile or variously pedicellate; resupinate or non-resupinate. Sepals three, free or connate; dorsal sepal often dissimilar to lateral sepals; lateral sepal sometimes adnate to the column to form a saccate, conical or spur-like mentum. Petals three (medial petal distinguished from the others as the lip), usually free. Lip entire or variously lobed, often with ornamented calluses, with or without a basal spur or nectary. Column short or long, with or without a basal foot, winged or lacking wings; fertile anther one (rarely two or three), terminal or incumbent, cap-like or dehiscing; pollen often agglutinated into discrete masses called pollinia; pollinia mealy, waxy or horny, soft or hard, sectile or not, 2,4,6 or 8, sessile or attached by caudicles or stipes to one or two viscidia forming a pollinarium; stigma 3-lobed, midlobe often modified to form a rostellum. Ovary inferior, unilocular with parietal placentation or rarely 3-locular with axile placentation. Fruit a capsule, usually opening laterally; seeds numerous, dust-like.
Genus Description
Plants terristrial. Stems clustered, cylindric or pseudobulbulose. pseudobulbulose conicl or ovoid. Leaves plicate. medium sized to large petiolate, narrowly obovate or narrolwly elliptic, acuminate. Inflorescence lateral from base of pseudo bulb or axillary, laxly or densely racemose. Flowers usually large, resupinate, turning blue black when old or damaged. Sepals and petals similar free rather fleshy, spreading or reflexed. Lip free entire to obscurely 3 lobed, erect sessile, partly addenate to and embracing the coloumn to form a tube, gibbous or shortly spurred. Coloumn long or short, fleshy curvred, with anflexed foot; Pollinia 8.
Species Description
Plant 40-100cm tall. Pseudobulbs ovoid-ellipsoid to cylindric, 7-10 x 1.5-3cm. Leaves 4-6 ovate-elliptic to elliptic lanceolate, acute margins weakly undulate, green with yellow or white spotting, 30-60 x 5-20cm; petiole grooved, 3-9cm long. Inflorescence lateral densely many flowered penducle, sheathed angled, glabrous, 15-35cm long. Sheaths eliiptic lanceolate, acute 3-5cm long; rachis glabrous 5-20cm long; floral bracts ovate acute 2.5-4cm long. Flowers showy 4-7cm long. Sepals subsimillar, spreading, concave, 2.5-4 x .8-1.5cm; dorsal sepal oblong elliptic, spathulate, obtuse to subacute, 2.5-4 x .8-1.5cm. Lip 3 lobed, spurred, erect, 2.5-4.5 x 2.5-4.5cm; lateral lobes erect, enfolding the colomn, oblong obtuse; mid rib ovate to sub orbicular, slightly defle x ed in front, margins crisped undulate; disc with 3 prominent keels; spur conical, 5-8mm long. Column erect, curved, pubescent, 1.5-2cm long.
