Epiphytic monopodial herbs, with short or elongate leafy stems, without pseudobulbs
Leaves
distichous, terete or flat, linear to ligulate, tip often unequally bilobed
Inflorescences
lateral, few- to many-flowered racemes; flowers cream to yellow or green; bracts small
Sepals
and petals subsimilar, free, spreading or recurved
Lip
usually tri-lobed, with lateral lobes often fimbriate or serrate, spurred at base
Gynostemium
short and fleshy, lacking column-foot; anther horizontal or somewhat reclining, operculate; pollinia 2, attached by entire or Y-shaped stipe to circular or elliptic viscidium; rostellum elongate, tapering towards apex
Capsule
mostly ellipsoid
x = 23 (aneuploids, polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Tridactyle
Schltr.
Schlechter: 601 (1914)
Schelpe: 50 (1966)
Harrison: 79 (1972)
Stewart et al.: 272 (1982)
Linder & Kurzweil: 446 (1999)
Angraecum
in part
Rolfe: 68 (1912)
Phillips: 243 (1951)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 42, sub-Saharan Africa
Southern Africa
: Species 4, south to Eastern Cape
References:
HARRISON, E.R. 1972.
Epiphytic orchids of southern Africa
. Natal Branch of the Wildlife Society of Southern Africa
LINDER, H.P. & KURZWEIL, H. 1999.
Orchids of southern Africa
. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam
PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants.
Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa
No. 25
ROLFE, R.A. 1912. Order CXXXI.
Orchideae
.
Flora capensis
5,3
SCHELPE, E.A. 1966.
An introduction to the South African Orchids
. Purnell & Sons, Cape Town, Johannesburg
SCHLECHTER, R. 1914, 1915.
Die Orchideen
. Paul Parey, Berlin
STEWART, J., LINDER, H.P., SCHELPE, E.A. & HALL, A.V. 1982.
Wild orchids of southern Africa
. Macmillan, Johannesburg
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Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
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