Orchidantha
Genus of flowering plants
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Orchidantha is a genus of flowering plants. In the APG III system, it is placed in the family Lowiaceae,[2] as the sole genus.[5] It includes the plants in the formerly recognised genera Lowia and Protamomum.
| Orchidantha | |
|---|---|
| Orchidantha maxillarioides[1] | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Clade: | Commelinids |
| Order: | Zingiberales |
| Family: | Lowiaceae Ridl.[2] |
| Genus: | Orchidantha N.E.Br.[3] |
| Type species | |
| Orchidantha borneensi N.E.Br. | |
| Synonyms[4] | |
| |
Orchidantha remains a poorly known genus, found from southern China to Borneo.[4][6] Orchidantha means "orchid-flower", as one of the petals on the flowers is modified into a labellum, like the flowers of orchids.[7] One species, Orchidantha inouei of Borneo, imitates the smell of dung in order to attract small Onthophagus dung beetles as pollinators.[8]
Taxonomy
| Cladogram: Phylogeny of Zingiberales[9] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Species

As of August 2013[update], the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families accepted 17 species:[4][10]
- Orchidantha borneensis N.E.Br. - Borneo
- Orchidantha chinensis T.L.Wu - Guangdong, Guangxi
- Orchidantha fimbriata Holttum - Pen. Malaysia
- Orchidantha foetida Jenjitt. & K.Larsen - Thailand
- Orchidantha grandiflora Mood & L.B.Pedersen - Sabah
- Orchidantha holttumii K.Larsen - Sabah, Brunei
- Orchidantha inouei Nagam. & S.Sakai - Sarawak
- Orchidantha insularis T.L.Wu - Hainan
- Orchidantha laotica K.Larsen - Laos
- Orchidantha longiflora (Scort.) Ridl. - Pen. Malaysia
- Orchidantha maxillarioides (Ridl.) K.Schum. - Pahang
- Orchidantha quadricolor L.B.Pedersen & A.L.Lamb - Sabah
- Orchidantha sabahensis A.L.Lamb & L.B.Pedersen - Sabah
- Orchidantha siamensis K.Larsen - Pen. Malaysia, S Thailand
- Orchidantha stercorea H.Ð.Trần & Škorničk. - Vietnam
- Orchidantha suratii L.B.Pedersen - Sabah
- Orchidantha vietnamica K.Larsen - Vietnam