62. Galeandra Lindley in F. A. Bauer and J. Lindley, Ill. Orch. Pl. 2: plate 8. 1832.
[Latin galea, helmet, and Greek -andrus, male, referring to shape of anther]
Gustavo A. Romero-González
Herbs, terrestrial [epiphytic], cespitose. Stems reedlike or more often pseudobulbs. Leaves 1–2 [several], not articulate [articulate], plicate, absent [present] at flowering. Inflorescences terminal, racemes, erect [lightly arching to pendent]; floral bracts lanceolate, scarious. Flowers resupinate, showy; sepals and petals membranaceous; lip sessile, simple [obscurely 2–3-lobate], base with conspicuous spur adnate to column foot, margins tomentose [glabrous]; spur shortly conic [sometimes apically recurved, funnel-shaped]; disc basally 2[–4]-keeled; column lightly arcuate, shallowly winged, semiterete, produced into conspicuous foot; anther terminal, incumbent, operculate, imperfectly 2-locular; pollinia 2, yellow, nearly spheric, cartilaginous. Fruits capsules.
Species 20–24 (1 in the flora): tropical and semitropical regions, North America, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America.
SELECTED REFERENCE
Rolfe, R. A. 1892. The genus Galeandra. Gard. Chron., ser. 3, 12: 430–431.
