Chamaeanthus

Epidendroideae/Vandeae/Aeridinae

Miniature monopodial epiphytes. Stems short, rooting at the base, occasionally branching and forming clumps. Leaves alternate, distichous, fleshy, pale greenish-yellow. Inflorescences subsessile racemes, shorter than the leaves, elongating with periodic flushes of flowers. Flowers spidery, scarcely opening during the day, yellowish-green. Sepal and petals subsimilar, subequal, free, spreading, lanceolate, acuminate. Lip obscurely three-lobed, fleshy, flexibly attached to an elongate column foot. Column stout, with an elongate foot; pollinia 2, on a common linear stipe and minute viscidium.

From the Greek chamai, meaning lowly, and anthos, meaning flower, referring to the insignificant flowers.

A genus of two species native to Indonesia. Recently, most of the species assigned to Chamaeanthus were transferred to Gunnarella because they have four, rather than two pollinia. In the proportions of the flowers and inflorescences to the miniature plant

Senghas, K. 1988. Uber due gattungen Chamaeanthus und Chroniochilus neubeschriebung der Gattung Gunnarella. Die Orchidee 39(2):68-73.