Erect, epiphytic or sometimes pseudo-terrestrial herbs. Pseudobulbs short, fleshy, ovoid or ellipsoid, tapering, often laterally compressed, smooth or plurisulcate, the bases enveloped in several closely imbricating, papery or coarsely fibrous bracts, the upper 1 or 2 of which are usually foliaceous; the apex with 1 to several, usually broad, plicate leaves which are ultimately deciduous, the apex of the old pseudobulbs with or without 2 sharp marginal spines; roots fibrous, often pubescent or conspicuously lanuginose. Inflorescences 1 to many erect, stout or filiform, single-flowered scapes from the base of the pseudobulbs, enveloped in several closely imbricating or distant, tubular or spathaceous, papery bracts. Flowers small to large, usually more or less nodding. Sepals subequal, membranaceous, spreading, the laterals somewhat broader than the dorsal sepal, sometimes somewhat reflexed, adnate at the base to the foot of the column, forming a short mentum. Petals subequal to the dorsal sepal or shorter. Lip conspicuously or obscurely 3-lobed, the base continuous with, or articulated with, the foot of the column, lateral lobes or margins erect, mid-lobe spreading or reflexed; disk with a thickened callus. Column slender, semiterete, rather arcuate, produced at the base into a foot. Anther terminal, operculate, incumbent, 1-celled; pollinia 4. waxy.
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