Aplectrum

Herbs, perennial. Roots in fascicles at base of pseudobulb, slender, fibrous. Corms connected by slender rhizomes. Stems scapes, cormose. Leaves produced in late summer-fall, withering in spring, solitary, borne at distal end of corm, plicate. Inflorescences solitary, lax racemes from lateral nodes on corm; floral bracts inconspicuous; cauline bracts sheathing, large. Flowers several, resupinate; sepals to 15 mm; lip 3-lobed, with 3 parallel lamellae; column compressed; pollinarium 1; pollinea 4, attached to viscidium by short stipe; stigma deeply concave. Fruits capsules, pendent, straight, 7 mm.

Sep and lateral pet similar, spreading, the pet projecting forward over the column; lip broadly obovate, with 3 low parallel ridges near the center, obliquely 3- cleft, its lateral lobes up curved, the terminal one dilated and upcurved at the margin; column slender, flattened, bearing a terminal anther with 4 pollinia; perennial from stout globose corms that produce in late summer a single lf that lasts ±throughout the winter, the same corm (in some individuals) producing an achlorophyllous, bracteate scape the following spring, after the lf has withered; fls in a loose terminal raceme. 2, the other Japanese.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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