Liparis

• 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

  Liparis

• Description

  Genus Description - Plants sympodial, terrestrial, lithophytic or epiphytic, caespitose. Roots thick, fleshy. Stems thickened as corms or pseudobulbs, fleshy, covered by persistent leaf bases. Leaves nonarticulate, 1 to several, sheathing, conduplicate to plicate. Inflorescence terminal, scapose, erect, raceme few- to many-flowered. Flowers resupinate. Sepals free, spreading. Petals narrowly linear to filiform. Lip entire or variously lobed, arcuate-recurved, attached to the base of the column. Column elongate, arched, footless, winged above; stigma entire; anther terminal, incumbent, operculate; pollinia 4, naked, ovoid, hard, waxy. Fruit a capsule.

• Discussion

  Liparis Richard, De Orchid. Eur. 21. 1817. Type species. Liparis heselii (Linnaeus) Richard, based on Ophrys heselii Linnaeus of eastern North America and northern Europe. A cosmopolitan genus of perhaps 200 species, particularly rich in the paleotropics. The generic name refers to the smooth shining surface of the leaves of many of the species. The distinction between Malaxis and Liparis is not clear. The former generally has a very short column, whereas the latter has a long, strongly curved column. However, an intermediate and possibly polyphyletic group obscures the generic lines. Circumscription of the two may be resolved by detailed study of floral morphology (E. Christenson, pers. comm., 1993). Special Literature. Fawcett & Rendle, 1910.