Herbs, terrestrial or epiphytic, cespitose. Stems pseudobulbs, ovate-fusiform. Leaves deciduous, distichous; blade articulate, plicate, leathery, apex acuminate. Inflorescences from base of pseudobulbs, racemes to panicles, erect; floral bracts large, showy, margins undulate. Flowers resupinate, showy; sepals and petals membranaceous, margins often conspicuously undulate; lip adnate to apex of column foot, subsessile to conspicuously clawed, conspicuously 3-lobed, disc with tuberculate, cristate, or verrucose callus; column slightly arcuate, sometimes nearly club-shaped, semiterete, forming conspicuous foot; anther terminal, incumbent, operculate, imperfectly 2-locular; pollinia 2, yellow, nearly triangular, sulcate, cartilaginous, attached to short, trowel-shaped viscidium. Fruits capsules, pendent, pear-shaped.

Distribution

Tropical and subtropical regions, North America, West Indies, Central America, South America.

Discussion

Species 15–30 (2 in the flora).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Cyrtopodium polyphyllum, Cyrtopodium punctatum

Key

1	Lip middle lobe margin not conspicuously verruculose-tuberculate; lateral lobes bright yellow, shorter than middle lobe; plants terrestrial.	Cyrtopodium polyphyllum
1	Lip middle lobe margin conspicuously verruculose-tuberculate, lateral lobes spotted or solid dark orange or maroon, longer than middle lobe; epiphytic.	Cyrtopodium punctatum