Tufted epiphytic herbs without pseudobulbs. Leaves distichously arranged in the form of an open fan, erect or arching, plicate, lanceolate, acute or acuminate, contracted below into conduplicate petioles. Inflorescences slender, erect, arching or semi-pendulous, 1-flowered, scapose, less than half the length of the leaves, produced from the axils of the lower leaves or bracts. Flowers small to large and conspicuous. Sepals subequal, free, spreading, membranaceous, the dorsal sepal erect, the laterals often retrorse, obliquely inserted on the short column foot. Petals usually spreading, subequal to the dorsal sepal or broader. Lip usually cucullate, obovate, suborbicular or subquadrate, sometimes obscurely or conspicuously 3-lobed, the lateral lobes or margins erect, or the lip explanate and divided into a narrow basal and a broad apical part, contracted at the base and adnate to, or articulated with, the very short column foot, sometimes forming a very short mentum; disk with a broad or narrow, more or less fleshy callus, the apex free and usually denticulate, or rarely with the basal callus conspicuously pedicellate, the apex scutellate. Column semi-terete, slender or broadly clavate above, sometimes narrowly winged, the ventral surface with or without a keel, rarely with a broad, 2-alate plate below the stigma, the base of the column produced into a very short foot. Anther terminal, operculate, incumbent, 1-celled or imperfectly 2-celled; pollinia 4, waxy.
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