19. Nervilia Commerson ex Gaudichaud in Freycinet, Voy. Monde Bot. 421, t. 35. 1829. nom. cons. 1905.
J. RENZ
Pogonia Griffith, sect. Nervilia ex B. Grant., Orchids of Burma, 355. 1895.
Terrestrial plants with globose-tuberous corm and stolons. Leaf solitary, often long petiolate, broadly cordate or suborbicular or reniform, ± plicate, cordate at base, with ± prominent fan-like veins, appearing later than the leafless scape. Flowers resupinate, solitary or several in ± dense inflorescence, sometimes pendulous. Sepals and petals subequal, free, usually connivent. Labellum entire or 3-lobed, without spur. Column elongate, slender; anther large, ± incumbent; pollinia 2, sectile, without caudicles or viscid glands; stigma entire.
About 100 species in the paleotropics, from Africa, Madagascar to the Himalaya and S. China, Philippines, New Guinea, Australia and some in Polynesia. 2 species occur in Pakistan.