Citation: R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 330 (1810).

Derivation: Greek gastrodes, pot-bellied; alluding to the shape of the flower.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Plants terrestrial, leafless, saprophytic, lacking chlorophyll; rhizome elongated, sympodially branched, mycorrhizal, bulky and filled with starch, nodes bearing scale leaves; leaves represented on the erect stem only by short sheathing scales.

Flowers pedicellate not resupinate, in loose, few- to many-flowered racemes; floral bracts short, scarious; perianth tubular, with 5 fleshy lobes, slightly split between the lateral sepals which stand uppermost; lube gibbous beneath the labellum; petal lobes small and just within the mouth of the tube; labellum included, adnate to the gibbous part of the tube, its free portion oblong with submedian longitudinal calli and undulate margins; column erect, elongated, narrowly winged; anther terminal, bending forward, shortly stalked, the cells contiguous; pollinia 4, in angular granules; stigma in a depression at the extreme base of the column.

Distribution:  About 16 species distributed from northern India to Japan and southwards through Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea to New Zealand. 2 species occur in Australia, 1 is endemic.

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available