Polystachya

• Authority

  Ackerman, James D. 1995. An orchid flora of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 73: 1-203.

• Family

  Orchidaceae

• Scientific Name

  Polystachya

• Description

  Genus Description - Plants epiphytic, lithophytic or terrestrial. Roots velamentous. Secondary stems slender or pseudobulbous, clustered or the rhizome, 1- to several-leaved. Leaves conduplicate, coriaceous, thin or fleshy. Inflorescences terminal, peduncle enclosed by scarious sheaths, racemose or paniculate with more or less secund branches, few- to many-flowered. Flowers generally small, mostly nonresupinate. Sepals free; lateral sepals attached to the column foot, forming a mentum. Petals smaller than the sepals, free. Lip simple or trilobed; attached to and articulate with the column foot, forming part of the mentum; disc usually callose and pubescent. Column short, semiterete; foot distinct; stigmas confluent, transverse under the rostellum; anther terminal, operculate, incumbent; pollinia 4, globose or ellipsoidal, hard, waxy, attached to a single short stipe and an ovate to elliptic viscidium. Fruit a capsule.

• Discussion

  Polystachya Hooker, Exot. Fl. 2: t. 103. 1824. Type species. Polystachya concreta (Jacquin) Garay & Sweet, Epidendrum concretum Jacquin as Epidendrum minutum Aublet, a pantropical species. A pantropical genus of about 150 species, particularly species-rich in Africa. The generic name refers to the many branchlets that make up the inflorescence in some species. Special Literature. Dunsterville & Garay, 1965; Garay & Sweet, 1974.