Generic Description Acampe Lindlley

An Old World genus of coarse monopodial epiphytes forming massive clumps, with fleshy strap-shaped leaves, a lateral raceme or panicle of peculiarly fleshy and brittle small flowers, marked by brown transverse bands. Lip adnate to footless column, saccate or spurred; sidelobes minute; midlobe ovate, fleshy, scabellus inside; sac without back wall callus, but usually hairy and often with a longitudinal median callus. Column short, with two terminal horns. Pollinia four in two unequal pairs; stipes strap-shaped to clavate, hardly twice as long as the diameter of pollinia; viscidium small, elliptic.

Acanthephippium Blume

An Indo-Malesian genus of terrestrial plants, with closely approximate, large, conical, multinodal pseudobulbs and a few plaited, articulated leaves. Inflorescence lateral on the young pseudobulbs, short, erect, few-flowered. Sepals cohering into an obliquely jug-shaped body, free at top; laterals much broader than the dorsal, decurrent on the columnfoot forming a mentum with it. Lip on top of columnfoot, very mobile, small, saddle-shape; disc with varying number of longitudinal keels. Columnfoot very long, up curved, distally free from sepals. Anther two-loculed; pollinia eight, waxy, in two separate bundles of four each, all cohering by a short granular stalk.

Acriopsis Reinwardt ex Blume

An Indo-Malesian epiphytic genus of sympodial plants with creeping, branched rhizome, clustered ovoid pseudobulbs covered at base by slender, silvery sheaths. Leaves apical, one-three, linear-lanceolate, petiolate. Inflorescence from base of the pseudobulb, erect, slender, simple or branched, with many well spaced, small, spreading, twisted flowers. Lateral sepals merged completely into a synsepal. Lip spreading, more or less three-lobed; bases of side lobes connate with the column above its middle forming a nectary; disc with short, erect lamellae on the mesial line. Column straight to S-shaped, with two styliform, horizontal or decurved processes on each side of the stigma, and cucullate concealing the anther; rostellum suberect, beaklike, bifurcate. Anther membranous, two-chambered; pollinia four, connate in two pairs, slender, on long, thin stipes; viscidium minute.

Acrochaene Lindely

A monotypic epiphytic genus from India and Thailand with closely approximate uninodal pseudobulbs and single, linear-oblong, coriaceous petiolar leaf. Inflorescence from base of the pseudobulb, pendulous; raceme long, laxly many-flowered. Flowers medium-sized, dull green, spotted-striate. Sepals spreading, the lateral pair obliquely adnate to the columnfoot to form a short mentum; petals shorter than the sepals, ciliate-fimbriate. Lip with a short claw, incumbent on and articulated to the end of the columnfoot, three- lobed; the basal lobes erect and broadly toothed at the apex; the apical lobe tongue-shaped and deflexed. Column short, thick, with blunt obscure arms; columnfoot long and straight. Anther broad, two-chambered; pollinia two, subglobose, cleft, attached below to a stout caudicle and a gland-like body at the base.

Aenhenrya Gopalan

A monospecific terrestrial genus endemic to South India belonging to the popular jewel-orchids; with decumbent rhizome, an erect beaded and mottled leafy stem and a terminal inflorescence with a single or rarely two large flowers. Lip large, three-lobed; hypochile rectangular, having a few fat hairs laterally at base; epichile elongate, tube-like; side lobes of lip clasp the stigma lobes; petals and rostellum form an upper canal. Column incurved, long, containing the tapering rostellar projection (sterile median stigma lobe); fertile part of stigma three-lobed; the lateral lobes at base of the column, triangular; a third narrowly triangular lobe on a horn like projection. Pollinia two, bipartite, with very long stipes (among the longest stipes known in the family), ending in an ovoid viscidium.

Aerides Loureiro

An Indo-Malesian genus, predominantly epiphytic, rarely lithophytic with branching long, stout stems, loriform leaves and a simple or branched, erect or pendulous raceme of large showy flowers. Sepals and petals subsimilar; lateral sepals ± decurrent on columnfoot. Lip stiffly hinged to end of the columnfoot, three-lobed; lateral lobes decurrent on the column, small or large; midlobe usually larger than the sidelobes or smaller and included between them, spurred; spur usually bent forward, with swellings or calli within. Column short, with a large foot. Anther two-loculed, beaked; pollinia two, cleft, on a narrow stipe; viscidium various.

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