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Ceraia Loureiro.

Roots smooth. Stems tufted, in most species shoot with 3 zones: pseudobulbous, leafy, and flowering, with leaves reduced to scales; fusiform swollen basal portion formed by 1-3 internodes, covered with sheaths and located directly above or several internodes above rhizome; growth continuing in second year; in Dendrobium crumenatum: stem flowering after 2 years; thereafter distal stem may branch and continue growth, with branches flowering. Leaves terete, laterally flattened, conduplicate, or canaliculate. Inflorescences multiple, in most species: borne along leafless distal stem, rarely along a fully leafy stem; each compressed into a peduncle, producing 1 or 2 flowers at once in bursts over more than one season (gregarious blooming and ephemeral). Flowers usually white, sometimes yellowish or pink. Mentum prominent, straight or decurved, often saccate, containing a gland near apex of column foot. Lip 3-lobed, lateral lobes vertical, disk often with keels sometimes hairy.

About 76 species: from Thailand to Malaysia through Indonesia and the Philippines to Australia, Fiji, and Guam; four species in China.