Caespitose or repent, epiphytic or terrestrial herbs. Secondary stems usually very short, bearing a single leaf and a peduncle or the leaves and peduncles borne on separate stems. Leaves most often broadest toward the apex and attenuated into a petiole at the base, with an abscission at the end of the secondary stem and another slightly above. Peduncles usually 1-to 2-flowered. Sepals connate into a tube at the base or to the middle or beyond, the free portions often spreading, the tips usually developed into slender tails, produced into a mentum at the base. Petals very much smaller than the sepals, usually narrow. Lip small, articulated to the column-foot, about as long as the column. Column erect, produced into a column-foot at the base; margins of the clinandrium usually membranaceous and denticulate. Anther terminal, operculate, incumbent; pollinia 2, ceraceous.