Didymoplexis

Gastrodieae subtribe Gastrodiinae

Diminutive achlorophyllous saprophytes arising from fleshy, horizontal tubers. Stems erect, leafless, with sparse, distant bracts. Inflorescences congested, one to few-flowered, scapose racemes. Sepals and petals basally fused, forming a short tube, subsaccate along fusion with the column foot. Lip lobed or entire, sessile-cuneate. Column arcuate, with a foot; pollinia four.

From the Greek didymos, meaning twin, and plexis, meaning plaiting, referring either to the folding caused by the fusion of the dorsal sepal and petals or to the pair of column wings.

A genus of about 20 species from Africa and Madagascar to Australia, Fiji and New Caledonia.

Hemsley, W. B. 1883. On the synonymy of the orchidaceous genus Didymoplexis Griffith and the elongation of the pedicels of D. pallens after flowering. J. Linn. Soc. Bot. 20:308-311.

Rao, A. S., S. R. Rathmore and S. C. Srivastava 1979. Didymoplexis pallens Griff. -- rediscovery of a rare saprophytic orchid in the Indian Botanic Garden, Howarh. Bull. Bot. Surv. India 21:151-155.

Stewart, J. and E. F. Hennessy 1980. Didymoplexis verrucosa, a new saprophytic orchid from South Africa. Amer. Orchid Soc. Bull. 49(8):836-842.

van Steenis, C. G. G. J. 1978. Notes on a saprophytic orchid genus new to South Africa. Bothalia 12(3):451-452.