Orchidaceae
Otostylis
Kingdom: Plantae Rank: Genus Parent: Orchidaceae Status: Valid
Morphological Description
Diagnosis: Plants of Otostylis resemble large clumps of grass. The tall, erect racemes bear stark white flowers with a very rigid-fleshy transverse ridged callus on the lip. The only similar plant in the flora is Koellensteinia which bears sepals and petals variously marked with bluish purple.
Vegetative Morphology
Habit: Caespitose terrestrials. Stems short, concealed by bracts and leaf bases.
Leaves: Leaves several, plicate, lanceolate, petiolate, acuminate.
Reproductive Morphology
Inflorescence: Inflorescences axillary erect long-pedunculate elongate racemes, the floral bracts inconspicuous.
Flowers: Flowers numerous, showy. Sepals and petals subsimilar, subequal, free, spreading. Lip unlobed or obscurely three-lobed, subauriculate, with a basal transverse crested callus. Column straight, +/- wings, with a minute foot; pollinia 4, on a common linear viscidium.