Coelia

Epidendreae subtribe Coeliinae

Caespitose epiphytes, lithophytes and terrestrials. Pseudobulbs ovoid-ellipsoid, subtended by non-foliaceous bracts. Leaves 3--5, linear, forming an elongate neck at the base. Inflorescences basal pedunculate loosely or densely-flowered racemes, the peduncle enveloped with conspicuous bracts, the floral bracts linear, often longer than the ovary and flower. Flowers cupped. Sepals and petals free, subsimilar. Lip unlobed, +/- spurred, without callus. Column erect, with a foot, without wings; pollinia 8, in two pairs of four each, on a minute common viscidium.

From the Greek koilos, meaning hollow, based on an inaccurate observation that the pollinia formed a hollow chamber.

A genus of five species in the West Indies and Mexico to Panama. Bothriochilus has been variously separated from Coelia, mostly on the basis of a spur in Bothriochilus and no spur in Coelia. Modern authors treat both as a broadly defined Coelia.

Pridgeon, A. 1978. Un revision de los generos Coelia y Bothriochilus. Orquidea(Mex.) 7(2):57-80.