Tetramicra

• 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

  Tetramicra

• Description

  Genus Description - Plants sympodial terrestrials or epiphytes. Roots velamentous. Rhizomes stout, repent. Stems short, remote, rarely pseudobulbous. Leaves articulate, distichous, conduplicate, sometimes semiterete, fleshy, coriaceous. Inflorescences terminal, erect, long-pedunculate, racemose, loosely flowered. Flowers often showy, resupinate. Sepals and petals similar, free, spreading. Lip trilobed, larger than the other floral segments, base forming a gibbose nectary with the column. Column semiterete, broadly winged; stigma lobes confluent, entire, transverse; clinandrium trilobed; anther terminal, operculate; pollinia 8, hard, waxy, connected by 4 caudicles. Fruit a capsule.

• Discussion

  Tetramicra Lindley, Gen. Sp. Orchid. PL 119. 1831. Type species. Tetramicra rigida (Willdenow) Lindley based Cymbidium rigidum Willdenow (= T. canaliculata (Aublet) Urban) of Florida (U.S.A.), Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Lesser Antilles. A Caribbean genus of about 10 species. The generic name refers to the 4 compartments of the anther cap, which houses 4 small and 4 large pollinia. Special Literature. C. A. Luer, 1972; Garay & Sweet, 1974.