Cordula Rafinesque; Stimegas Rafinesque.

Plants terrestrial, lithophytic, or epiphytic. Rhizome inconspicuous or short, rarely stoloniferous, with glabrous or hairy roots. Stem short, enclosed in distichous leaf bases, rarely elongated. Leaves usually basal, 3-7, distichous, conduplicate toward base; blade abaxially pale green or sometimes spotted or flushed with purple at base or throughout, adaxially uniformly green or tessellated with dark and light green, narrowly elliptic to suboblong. Scape suberect to arching, terminating in a solitary flower or a several- to many-flowered inflorescence; peduncle usually hairy; floral bracts conduplicate; ovary 1-locular. Flowers large, showy, variable in color. Dorsal sepal often large, margin sometimes recurved; lateral sepals usually fused to form a synsepal. Petals various in shape, suborbicular to spatulate; lip deeply pouched and inflated, globose, ellipsoid, or ovoid, basal portion narrowed and with incurved lateral lobes, hairy at inner bottom. Column short, with 2 lateral fertile stamens, a terminal staminode above, and a stigma below; anthers 2-locular, with very short filament; pollen powdery or glutinous; staminode varying in shape; stigma papillate and inconspicuously 3-lobed. Fruit a capsule.

About 80-85 species: tropical Asia to the Pacific islands, with some species extending to subtropical areas; 27 species (two endemic) in China.

(Authors: Liu Zhongjian (刘仲健), Chen Xinqi (陈心启 Chen Sing-chi); Phillip J. Cribb)