Bromheadia

Cymbidieae subtribe Bromheadiinae

Caespitose or trailing epiphytes and terrestrials. Stems erect, leafy toward their apices. Leaves alternate, distichous, linear to narrowly elliptic or bilaterally compressed. Inflorescences terminal racemes, sessile to long-pedunculate, with strongly two-ranked floral bracts. Flowers ephemeral, lasting less than one day. Sepals and petals free, spreading. Lip three-lobed, with apical and sometimes basal usually warty callus. Column straight, without wings or foot; pollinia 2, sessile on a large viscidium.

Honoring Sir Edward French Bromhead, an active student of botany.

A genus of 17 species found from Sri Lanka to New Guinea and Australia. The genus is divided into two sections; section Bromheadia bears typical leaves while section Aporodes Schlechter bears bilaterally compressed leaves.

Holttum, R. E. 1949. Gregarious flowering of the terrestrial orchid Bromheadia finlaysoniana. Gard. Bull. Singapore 12(2):295-302.

Hunt, T. E. 1953. Bromheadia Lindl., a new genus for Australia. Austral. Orchid Rev. 18:101.

Lavarack, P. S., M. A. Clements and N. H. S. Howcroft 1984. Bromheadia pulchra Schltr. in Australia and New Guinea. Orchadian 7(12):291-294.

Kruizinga, J., H. J. van Scheindelen and E. F. de Vogel 1997. Revision of the genus Bromheadia. Orch. Monogr. 8:79-118.

Ridley, H. N. 1891. The genus Bromheadia. J. Linn. Soc. Bot. 28:331-339.