Description :

• Epiphytic, rarely lithophytic herbs
• Stems short, frequently pseudobulbous
• Leaves 1-several, distichous, leathery, sheathing at base
• Inflorescences terminal, racemes or panicles; flowers minute to fairly large, not resupinate, often pubescent, colours various; bracts small, lanceolate to ovate
• Sepals connivent or spreading; median one free; laterals adnate to column-foot to form prominent mentum
• Petals narrower than median sepal
• Lip 3-lobed or entire, glabrous or pubescent, often with basal callus
• Gynostemium short and broad, produced into column-foot at base; anther operculate; pollinia 2, waxy, attached by square to linear stipe to viscidium
• Capsule oblong or fusiform, sometimes elongate
• x = 10 (high polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• Polystachya Hook.
  • Hooker: t. 103 (1825) name conserved
  • Rolfe: 63 (1912)
  • Phillips: 241 (1951)
  • Schelpe: 34 (1966)
  • Harrison: 11 (1972)
  • Stewart et al.: 222 (1982)
  • Linder & Kurzweil: 407 (1999)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species ± 200, predominantly African, but also found in Asian, Australasian and American tropics
• Southern Africa : Species 11, in northern and eastern parts, from Northern Province to Swellendam (Western Cape)