Terrestrial herbs, with creeping rhizomes and ascending or erect, simple, leafy stems
Leaves
petiolate, ovate or lanceolate, membranous
Inflorescence
a terminal, lax raceme, pubescent; flowers small, white or brown; bracts small
Sepals
united in lower half, connivent or spreading, equal or laterals slightly broader
Petals
adnate to median sepal
Lip
united with base of gynostemium, base saccate with 2 calli inside, limb entire or divaricately bilobed
Gynostemium
short, with pair of appendages beneath stigma; anther erect or somewhat incumbent; pollinia 2, sectile, attached to single viscidium
Capsule
erect, ovoid or oblong
x = 13
Nomenclature:
Cheirostylis
Blume
Blume: 413, t. 16 (1825)
Stewart et al.: 213 (1982)
Linder & Kurzweil: 76 (1999)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 22, in Old World tropics and subtropics
Southern Africa
: Species 1:
Cheirostylis gymnochiloides
(Ridl.) Rchb.f. (previously misidentified as
Hetaeria
) in KwaZulu-Natal
References:
BLUME, C.L. 1825-1826.
Bijdragen tot de flora van Nederlandsch Indië
. Lands Drukkerij, Batavia
LINDER, H.P. & KURZWEIL, H. 1999.
Orchids of southern Africa
. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam
STEWART, J., LINDER, H.P., SCHELPE, E.A. & HALL, A.V. 1982.
Wild orchids of southern Africa
. Macmillan, Johannesburg
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