Pachystoma Blume,
Bijdr. (1825) 376
Sympodial terrestrial plants with a subterranean swollen rhizome. Leaf-bearing shoot almost stemless, 1- or 2-leaved. Leaves sheathing at the base, very narrow, glabrous, plicate, often withered at the time of flowering, thin-textured. Inflorescence arising from the rhizome, usually far separated from the leaf-bearing shoot, a few- to many-flowered raceme. Flowers small, resupinate, all parts hairy, including the column. Sepals free. Petals free, narrower than the sepals. Lip without spur, not mobile, at the base with a concavity which is almost closed by a callus on the short column-foot, 3-lobed, the mid-lobe with 5 to 7 warty keels. Pollinia 8, solid, caudicles present, stipe and viscidium absent.
Distribution
India, Southeast Asia, Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Australia, east to New Caledonia; about 6 (possibly only 1) species;
Distribution in the Philippines
Luzon (Ilocos Norte, Abra, Mt. Province, Benguet, Cagayan, Nueva Vizcaya, Rizal), Mindoro, Mindanao (Cotabato); 1 species [Pachystoma pubescens Blume].
Habitat
In tall grassland at low altitudes, often subjected to periodic fires.
Notes
This may be mistaken for a leafless orchid, as the grass-like leaves have often disappeared at the time the leafless inflorescences carry their inconspicuous flowers.