Brachycorythis

Orchideae subtribe Orchidinae

Terrestrials arising from thick fleshy roots or tubers. Stems erect, leafy, unbranched. Leaves numerous, lanceolate. Inflorescences terminal racemes, the floral bracts prominent, usually leaf-like. Flowers showy, usually purple. Sepals and petals free, spreading, subsimilar. Lip three-lobed, the lateral lobes small, flanking a short boat-shaped or saccate hypochile, the midlobe (epichile) three-lobulate, often folded downwards along the midvein. Column short, the anther sacs parallel; pollinia 2.

From the Greek brachys, meaning short, and korys, meaning helmet, referring to the helmet-like structure formed by the dorsal sepal and petals in many species.

A genus of about 35 species in tropical and South Africa and southeast Asia. Schwartzkopffia is sometimes included in a broadly defined Brachycorythis.

Kidson, S. and E. Fletcher 1986. Brachycorythis ovata Lindl. S. Afr. Orchid J. 17(3):118-119.

Pushpangadan, P. and C. Sathish Kumar 1995. The lost orchid of the Tahr Country. Amer. Orchid Soc. Bull. 64(9):960-963.

Summerhayes, V. S. 1955. A revision of the genus Brachycorythis. Kew Bull. 10:221-264.