Terrestrial herbs, with undivided or palmate root tubers
Leaves
cauline, densely imbricate, gradually decreasing in density and size upwards
Inflorescence
a lax or dense raceme; flowers pink, purple, yellow or brown; bracts leafy, ovate to lanceolate
Sepals
free; median one and petals often coherent, laterals ascending or spreading and recurved
Petals
usually oblique and similar to median sepal, at base often adnate to gynostemium
Lip
with saccate or spur-like lower part and entire or 2- or 3-lobed upper part
Gynostemium
: anther erect, thecae parallel and adjacent, anther canals 0; pollinia 2, sectile, with short caudicles attached to separate viscidia; stigma fleshy and pad-like or concave
Capsule
narrowly oblong
x = 21
Nomenclature:
Brachycorythis
Lindl.
Lindley: 363 (1838)
Rolfe: 84 (1912) partly under
Platanthera
Phillips: 233 (1951)
Summerhayes: 226 (1955)
Schelpe: 58 (1966)
Stewart et al.: 72 (1982)
Linder & Kurzweil: 80 (1999)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species 33, Africa and tropical Asia
Southern Africa
: Species 7, summer-rainfall area, Northern Province, North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape to George (Western Cape)
References:
LINDER, H.P. & KURZWEIL, H. 1999.
Orchids of southern Africa
. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam
LINDLEY, J. 1830-1840.
The genera and species of Orchidaceous plants
. Ridgways, London
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
STEWART, J., LINDER, H.P., SCHELPE, E.A. & HALL, A.V. 1982.
Wild orchids of southern Africa
. Macmillan, Johannesburg
SUMMERHAYES, V.S. 1955. A revision of the genus
Brachycorythis
.
Kew Bulletin
10
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