194. Malleola J. J. Smith & Schlechter, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 1: 979. 1913.
槌柱兰属 chui zhu lan shu
Authors: Xinqi Chen & Jeffrey J. Wood
Herbs, epiphytic, small, monopodial. Stems enclosed in basal leaf sheaths, pendulous, elongate or rarely short, sometimes slightly compressed. Leaves scattered along stem, several to many, distichous, often flushed with purple-red, oblique, usually narrowly elliptic to oblong, jointed and sheathing at base, apex unequally bilobed. Inflorescences 1-3, lateral, ascending or pendulous, mostly shorter than leaves, many flowered. Flowers facing in all directions, small, thinly textured. Sepals and petals free, spreading; dorsal sepal often cymbiform; lateral sepals and petals flatter. Lip firmly attached to column, immovable, with a variably shaped cylindric spur usually with interior ornaments; lateral lobes erect, broadly triangular, short; mid-lobe upcurved or downcurved, usually linear-lanceolate, sometimes conic, very small, usually with a ridge or thickening at base. Column hammer-shaped, short, stout, foot absent, often bent backward at apex; anther cap ± dorsal, large, apex narrowed and beaked; pollinia waxy, 2, globose, entire or rarely porate, attached by a common long spatulate stipe that is very broad below pollinia; viscidium very small.
About 30 species: from Thailand and Vietnam to Malaysia and Indonesia, to the Philippines, New Guinea, and the Pacific islands, with the center of distribution in the Malay Archipelago; one species in China.
Malleola insectifera (J. J. Smith) J. J. Smith & Schlechter (Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 1: 981. 1913; Saccolabium insectiferum J. J. Smith, Orch. Java, 641. 1905) was recorded from Hainan (Jianfeng Ling, 500-600 m) by X. Q. Song, Q. W. Meng and Y. B. Luo (Acta Bot. Yunnan. 31: 32. 2009). The present authors could not confirm this because they have not seen the specimen (X. Q. Song 061219, PE).
