Herbs, terrestrial, autotrophic or rarely holomycotrophic. Rhizome creeping, cylindric, several noded, fleshy; roots narrowly filiform to fibrous, arising singly from rhizome nodes or rarely absent. Stem erect or ascending, with 1 to a few loose tubular sheaths at base, and a few scattered or subrosulate leaves, or leafless (when holomycotrophic), glabrous. Leaves green or purple, occasionally with 1-3 white stripes, suborbicular, ovate-lanceolate, or elliptic, oblique, with a short to long petiole-like base dilating into tubular amplexicaul sheath. Inflorescence erect, terminal, racemose, glabrous or pubescent; peduncle with a few scattered sheathing bracts; rachis laxly to subdensely few to many flowered; floral bracts membranous, glabrous or pubescent. Flowers resupinate or erect and not resupinate; ovary twisted or not, slender, glabrous or pubescent. Sepals glabrous or pubescent; dorsal sepal free or connate for half its length with lateral sepals; lateral sepals similar to dorsal sepal, completely enclosing base of lip. Petals usually appressed to dorsal sepal, linear-ligulate to ovate, membranous; lip 3-partite, spurless; hypochile subglobose, aseptate and saccate or with a central septum and bisaccate, containing a pair of fleshy calli; mesochile usually elongate, tubular, external margin with an entire or fimbriate-pectinate flange, rarely with 2 flanges on either side, or rarely not flanged at all. Column dilated, twisted or not, ventrally with 2 intramarginal, lamellate appendages (wings); anther erect, ovoid, 2-locular; pollinia 2, obovoid-obpyriform or clavate, usually attenuate into slender stalks that attach to a solitary small viscidium; rostellum deltoid, remnant shortly to deeply bifid; stigma lobes separate to confluent, placed directly beneath rostellum. Capsule ellipsoid.
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