Orchid Information - Family Orchidaceae Subfamily Epidendroideae Tribe Vandeae Subtribe Adrorhizinae

Adrorhizinae Schltr., Die Orchideen (1914) 132. Type genus: Adrorhizon Hook.f.

Synonyms:

• Bromheadiinae Dressler, Lindleyana 5 (1990) 124. Type genus: Bromheadia Lindl.

Epiphytes or terrestrials, occasionally lithophytes, herbaceous. Roots thick, glabrous. Rhizome creeping. Stem erect, unbranched, terete to laterally compressed, not swollen or pseudobulb-like. Leaves 1 to several, distichous, alternate, stiffly herbaceous to hard-coriaceous; leaf sheath tubular around the stem, imbricate, usually with an incision opposite the blade; blade in Bromheadia sect. Bromheadia dorsoventrally flattened, elliptic to (ob)ovate to linear, articulation with the leaf sheath perpendicular to stem, with a 2-lobed apex, or in Bromheadia sect. Aporodes bilaterally flattened or terete, articulation parallel to stem, obliquely 3-angular to linear with an acute apex. lnflorescence terminal, lateral or both, racemose or cymose, sometimes with 1 or several raceme-like branches or paniculate (Bromheadia divaricata Ames & C.Schweinf., not in New Guinea); flora! bracts imbricate, alternating in 2 rows, stiff, rarely membranous , many-nerved, midrib keeled; in Bromheadia sect. Aporodes with a few membranous, sterile bracts. Flowers resupinate, opening in succession or a few open simultaneously, sometimes gregarious, short-lived to ephemeral. Sepals and petals free or connivent. Sepals oblong or elliptic to linear-lanceolate, thin-textured to fleshy, 1-9-nerved. Lateral sepals slightly asymmetric or not. Petals elliptic, narrowly spatulate, or oblong to linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, lightly asymmetric, usually thinner-textured than the sepals, not keeled, narrowed at the base, 3-nerved. Lip cymbiform, 3-lobed; spur absent; hypochile thin-textured, mostly median swollen, the lateral lobes variable in size, pronounced in front, the callus a ligulate, median, mor4e or less raised band, often densely hairy or papillose; epichile 3-angular to suborbicular or orbicular, or ligulate, flat to recurved, sometimes with upturned margins, with a pronounced, narrow to broad, ruminate, glabrous to papillose or hairy callus. Column curved, narrowly winged, with or without a semi-orbicular auricle at the base; column foot absent; hood small or dilated, covering at least the base of the anther, its margin sometimes toothed; anther terminal, 2-locular or imperfectly 4-locular, obovate to elliptic in outline from above; pollinia 2, porate, flat, lanceolate-ovoid to 3-angular-ovoid, or pyriform in unequal pairs; stipe absent; stigma cupulate, top margin (Bromheadia) laterally on either side with a 3-angular to semi-orbicular flap bent to cover the median part of the top rim (lateral flaps absent in Bromheadia pendek de Vogel, Bromheadia sect. Bromheadia); viscidium large, detachable, semi-dome­shaped, covering most of the stigma when un-detached. Fruit a capsule with 6 longitudinal ribs; perianth often persistent.
(after Wood 2014 )

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