165. Esmeralda H. G. Reichenbach, Xenia Orchid. 2: 38. 1862.
花蜘蛛兰属 hua zhi zhu lan shu
Authors: Xinqi Chen & Jeffrey J. Wood
Herbs, epiphytic, monopodial, erect or pendulous, large. Roots aerial, piercing through leaf sheaths along stem. Stem scandent, terete, stout, with many nodes. Leaves distichous, flat, usually oblong, twisted (to lie in one plane), thickly leathery, base sheathing, jointed, apex unequally bilobed. Inflorescence lateral, erect, racemose, few flowered; floral bracts persistent, scarious, sheathing. Flowers large, showy, thickly textured. Sepals and petals free, similar, spreading, overlapping, ovate to oblong. Petals slightly smaller; lip free, pendulous, movable, 3-lobed; lateral lobes small; mid-lobe reniform, clawed, margin crenate; disk 2-callose. Column short, stout, both sides winged, foot absent; anther cap terminal; pollinia 4, in 2 pairs, waxy, dorsally compressed, subglobose, unequal in size, attached by a triangular stipe to a large, saddle-shaped viscidium.
Three species: China, Himalayas, Myanmar, Thailand; two species in China.
