Sepals similar, free, lanceolate, reflexed or spreading. 
Petals with a callus at the base or at the junction of the 
petal and column. Lip simple or three-lobed, adnate at 
the base to the column, sometimes surrounding the col- 
umn. Column short, terete, adnate to the lip or callus 
of the lip for its entire length; rostellum short, emargin- 
ate; clinandrium evenly winged. Anther terminal, oper- 
culate, incumbent, two-celled; pollinia two, subglobose, 
waxy; stipe to each pollinium oblong, free from the other 
stipe almost to the oblong-ovate gland.—Small simple 
or branched epiphytic herbs with slender, leafy, repent 
or caespitose stems, lacking pseudobulbs. Leaves dis- 
tichous, jointed at the base, plane or terete, linear or 
subfiliform; leaf-sheaths persistent on the stems. Inflor- 
escence a terminal, distichous, fractiflex raceme. Flowers 
small.—Characteristic species, Mpidanthus paranthicus 
(Reichb. f.) L.O. Williams. 
If we follow Schlechter’s system of classification 
(Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin 9 (1926) 568-591), Hpidanthus 
apparently should be placed as the most advanced mem- 
ber of the tribe Kerosphaereae, series Acranthae. Wheth- 
er it should be placed in the subtribe Polystachyeae, 
a group of genera predominantly of Asia and Africa but 
occurring in the Americas, or whether it should be placed 
in a new subtribe of its own, I am not sure. 
There seem to be no close generic allies. Its relation- 
ship to Mpidendrum, where all of the species have been 
previously placed, is no more than a superficial resem- 
blance. 
The name £pidanthus is derived by taking the first 
part of the name #/pidendrum and adding to it the word 
avOos, a flower, in allusion to the Epidendrum-like flow- 
ers and the fact that all of the species previously have 
been placed in the genus pidendrum. 
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