Cranichis

• 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

  Cranichis

• Description

  Genus Description - Plants sympodial, terrestrial herbs. Roots several, thick from a short rhizome, villous, fasciculate. Leaves nonarticulate, basal, 1 to many, often forming a rosette, petiolate, elliptic, thin, plicate. Inflorescence terminal, erect; scape with a few sheathing bracts; raceme several- to many-flowered. Flowers nonresupinate. Sepals and petals free, spreading, thin. Lip fleshy, concave. Column short, cylindrical; stigma entire; rostellum apical; anther erect, dorsal; pollinia 4, clavate, mealy but brittle and breaking apart in chunks, not powdery, attached to a single, terminal viscidium by caudicles. Fruit a capsule.

• Discussion

  Cranichis Swartz, Nov. Gen. Sp. PL Prodr. 8: 120. 1788. Type species. Cranichis muscosa Swartz of the neotropics and subtropics. A neotropical genus of about 60 species. The generic name refers to the helmet-like appearance of the lip. Special Literature. Ackerman, 1989b; Senghas, 1989; Dressier, 1990b.