石斛组 shi hu zu

Roots smooth. Stem erect or pendulous, tall, leafy stems swollen or fusiform, many species deciduous, fleshy or slightly so, evenly swollen and cylindric or with some internodes swollen and fusiform, often longitudinally ridged when dry, leafy. Leaf blade dorsiventral, base decurrent, forming clasping sheaths. Inflorescences numerous, short, few-flowered racemes, lateral, often distal. Flowers opening simultaneously, large, pink to purple or white, rarely yellow, lip with a contrasting disk, mentum short, in most species enclosing nectary formed by matching cavities in column foot and base of lip, nectar present in a few species, lip entire or sometimes inconspicuously 3-lobed, surface tomentose-downy (velvety).

About 54 species: mostly Himalayan, from India through China to Japan, also Indonesia, Malaysia, and New Guinea, with one species extending to Australia; 27 species (six endemic) in China.