Orchid Information - Family Orchidaceae Subfamily Orchidoideae Tribe Orchideae Subtribe Orchidinae

Orchidinae Dressler & Dodson, Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 47 (1960) 35. Type genus: Orchis L.

Synonyms:

• Subtribe Angiadeniinae Parl. Fl. Ital. 3 (1858). 418. Type genus: Angiadenia Parl. (= Gymnadenia)
• Subtribe Gymnadeniinae Parl. Fl. Ital. 3 (1858) 393, as 'Gymnadenieae'. Type genus: Angiadenia Parl. (= Gymnadenia)
• Subtribe Habenariinae Benth. in Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Plant. 3 (1883) 464, 486 (1883). Type genus: Habenaria Willd.
• Subtribe Ophrydinae Benth. & Hook.f. Gen. PI, 3 (1883), as ' Euophrydinae'. Type genus: Ophrys L.
• Subtribe Androcorydinae Schltr. in Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin- Dahlem 9 (1926) 568 (1926). Type genus: Androcorys Schltr.
• Subtribe Serapiadinae Benth ., J. Linn. Soc. Bot. 18 (1881). 288 Type genus : Serapias L.
• Subtribe Platantherinae Schltr. Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin-Dahlem 9 (l926) 568, as 'Platanthereae'. Type genus: Platanthera Lindl.
• Subtribe Bartholinae Szlachetko, Fol. Geobot. Phytotax. 26 (1991) 316. Type genus: Bartholina R. Br.
• Subtribe Herminiinae Szlachetko, Fol. Geobot. Phytotax. 26 (1991) 320. Type genus: Herminium R.Br.

Terrestrials or rarely epiphytes, rarely mycoheterotrophic plants with colorless scale leaves. Tubers ovoid, spherical, ellipsoid or cylindric-fusiform, solitary or in clusters, hairy or glabrous. Leaves spirally arranged, 1 to many, deciduous or rarely persistent for more than 1 year, at the base of the stem or arranged along its length; leaf sheath often present; the lowest 1 to few reduced to sheaths, the uppermost often scale-like. Inflorescence terminal, erect or curved, 1- to many-flowered, rarely secund; peduncle usually terete, glabrous or less often hairy or glandular; floral bracts linear, lanceolate, ovate or elliptic, sometimes cucullate, usually glabrous. Flowers small to large, usually resupinate; pedicel usually short, often obscure; ovary distinct, glabrous or less often hairy or glandular. Dorsal sepal free or often adnate to the petals to form a hood over the column. Lateral sepals usually free, rarely connate to the base of the column, lip, stigma lobes or rostellum. Petals entire or 2-lobed. Lip usually lowermost in flower, usually deflexed, entire, 3- or 5-lobed, less commonly 2-partite, occasionally with a callus, usually spurred at the base; spur saccate, scrotiform, fusiform, club-shaped or cylindric, rarely fused to the ovary. Column basifixed, rarely adnate to the other floral segments at the base, erect or decumbent; anther 2-locular, locules either adnate or separated on a more or less broad connective; pollinia 2 or 4, sectile, attached by short to elongate caudicles to 1 or 2 viscidia; lateral appendages (staminodes, auricles ) 2, usually present, sessile or stalked, usually shorter than the column, rarely filiform and as long as or longer than the column; stigma entire or 2­lobed, sessile or stalked, concave to convex; rostellum usually 3­lobed, sometimes obscure, the mid-lobe erect or porrect, lying between or in front of the anther loculi, the lateral lobes short to long, porrect, rarely incurved or curved upwards.
(after Cribb 2001)

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