''Cheirostylis'', commonly known as fleshy jewel orchids or velvet orchids, is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of about sixty species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s in the orchid

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Orchidaceae Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

. Plants in this genus are

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...

herbs with a caterpillar-like rhizome and a loose rosette of leaves. Small, white, hairy flowers develop as the leaves wither. They are found in tropical

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, southern

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

Malesia Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and the boundaries of the Indomalayan and Australasian realms, and also a phytogeographical floristic region in the Paleotropical Kingdom. It has been given different definitions. Th ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

and Australia.

Description

Orchids in the genus ''Cheirostylis'' are terrestrial,

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wid ...

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

sympodial Sympodial growth is a bifurcating branching pattern where one branch develops more strongly than the other, resulting in the stronger branches forming the primary shoot and the weaker branches appearing laterally. A sympodium, also referred to a ...

herbs with a creeping, caterpillar-like, above-ground rhizome anchored to the ground by fine white root hairs. The leaves are thinly textured and arranged in a loose rosette with a short petiole but are usually withered by flowering time. The flowers are

resupinate Resupination is derived from the Latin word ''resupinus'', meaning "bent back with the face upward" or "on the back". "Resupination" is the noun form of the adjective "resupine" which means "being upside-down, supine or facing upward". The word " ...

and usually small, white and hairy with the

dorsal Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to: * Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism * Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage * Dorsal c ...

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coine ...

and

lateral Lateral is a geometric term of location which may refer to: Healthcare *Lateral (anatomy), an anatomical direction * Lateral cricoarytenoid muscle * Lateral release (surgery), a surgical procedure on the side of a kneecap Phonetics *Lateral co ...

sepals fused for about half their length. The petals are free from each other but are narrower than the sepals. The tip of the labellum has two lobes and a narrow base forming a shallow depression containing two calli.

Taxonomy and naming

The genus ''Cheirostylis'' was first formally described in 1825 by

Carl Ludwig Blume Charles Ludwig de Blume or Karl Ludwig von Blume (9 June 1796, Braunschweig – 3 February 1862, Leiden) was a German- Dutch botanist. He was born at Braunschweig in Germany, but studied at Leiden University and spent his professional life wor ...

and the description was published in ''Bijdragen tot de flora van Nederlandsch Indië''. The first species of ''Cheirostylis'' described by Blume was '' C. montana'', making it the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

Distribution

''Cheirostylis'' orchids occur in tropical Africa through tropical Asia from Japan to New Guinea and some Pacific Islands. Seventeen species, eight of which are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

occur in China and two species are endemic to Australia.

List of species

The following is a list of species recognised by the ''

World Checklist of Selected Plant Families The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (usually abbreviated to WCSP) is an "international collaborative programme that provides the latest peer reviewed and published opinions on the accepted scientific names and synonyms of selected pla ...

'' as at August 2018: * '' Cheirostylis acuminata'' Blume (2016) * '' Cheirostylis bidentata'' J.J.Sm. (1928) * '' Cheirostylis bipunctata'' Aver. (1996) * '' Cheirostylis calcarata'' X.H.Jin & S.C.Chen (2007) * '' Cheirostylis celebensis'' P.O'Byrne & J.J.Verm. (2006) * ''

Cheirostylis chinensis ''Cheirostylis'', commonly known as fleshy jewel orchids or velvet orchids, is a genus of about sixty species of flowering plants in the orchid family Orchidaceae. Plants in this genus are terrestrial herbs with a caterpillar-like rhizome and ...

'' Rolfe (1895) * '' Cheirostylis clibborndyeri'' S.Y.Hu & Baretto (1976) * '' Cheirostylis cochinchinensis'' Blume (1859) * '' Cheirostylis cristata'' Aver. (2010) * '' Cheirostylis dendrophila'' Schltr. (1911) * '' Cheirostylis divina'' (Guinea) Summerh. (1953) * '' Cheirostylis filipetala'' Aver. (2003) * '' Cheirostylis flabellata'' (A.Rich.) Wight (1851) * '' Cheirostylis foliosa'' Aver. (2007) * '' Cheirostylis glandulifera'' Aver. (2014) * '' Cheirostylis glandulosa'' (Aver.) J.M.H.Shaw (2015) * '' Cheirostylis goldschmidtiana'' Schltr. (1915) * '' Cheirostylis grandiflora'' Blume (1859) * '' Cheirostylis griffithii'' Lindl. (1857) * '' Cheirostylis gunnarii'' A.N.Rao (1998) * '' Cheirostylis jamesleungii'' S.Y.Hu & Barretto (1976) * '' Cheirostylis javanica'' J.J.Sm. (1913) * '' Cheirostylis kabaenae'' Ormerod (2008) * '' Cheirostylis latipetala'' Aver. & Averyanova (2006) * '' Cheirostylis lepida'' (Rchb.f.) Rolfe (1897) * '' Cheirostylis liukiuensis'' Masam. (1930) * '' Cheirostylis malipoensis'' X.H.Jin & S.C.Chen (2007) * '' Cheirostylis marmorifolia'' Aver. (2000) * '' Cheirostylis merrillii'' (Ames & Quisumb.) Ormerod (1998) * '' Cheirostylis moniliformis'' (Griff.) Seidenf. (1978) * '' Cheirostylis montana'' Blume (1825) * '' Cheirostylis monteiroi'' S.Y.Hu & Barretto (1976) * '' Cheirostylis nantouensis'' T.P.Lin (2017) * '' Cheirostylis notialis'' D.L.Jones (1997) – southern fleshy jewel orchid * '' Cheirostylis nuda'' (Thouars) Ormerod (2002) * '' Cheirostylis octodactyla'' Ames (1907) * '' Cheirostylis orobanchoides'' (F.Muell.) D.L.Jones & M.A.Clem. (1998) * '' Cheirostylis ovata'' (F.M.Bailey) Schltr. (1911) – banded fleshy jewel orchid * '' Cheirostylis pabongensis'' Lucksom (1997) * '' Cheirostylis parvifolia'' Lindl. (1839) * '' Cheirostylis pingbianensis'' K.Y.Lang (1996) * '' Cheirostylis pubescens'' E.C.Parish & Rchb.f. (1874) * '' Cheirostylis pusilla'' Lindl. (1840) * '' Cheirostylis raymundii'' Schltr. (1915) * '' Cheirostylis rubrifolius'' T.P.Lin & W.M.Lin (2009) * '' Cheirostylis serpens'' Aver. (2005) * '' Cheirostylis sessanica'' A.N.Rao (1988) * '' Cheirostylis sherriffii'' N.Pearce & P.J.Cribb (1999) * '' Cheirostylis spathulata'' J.J.Sm. (1927) * '' Cheirostylis tabiyahanensis'' (Hayata) N.Pearce & P.J.Cribb (1999) * '' Cheirostylis takeoi'' (Hayata) Schltr. (1919) * '' Cheirostylis thailandica'' Seidenf. (1978) * '' Cheirostylis thanmoiensis'' (Gagnep.) Ormerod (2002) * '' Cheirostylis tippica'' A.N.Rao (1991) * '' Cheirostylis tortilacinia'' C.S.Leou (1990) * '' Cheirostylis yunnanensis'' Rolfe (1896)

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from= Q134018 Cranichideae genera