Platanthera Rich.,
Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. 4 (1818) 48
Sympodial terrestrial plants, with or without subterranean tubers. Stem short or elongated, few-leaved. Leaves sheathing at the base, glabrous, persistent, convolute, herbaceous. Inflorescence terminal, a few- to many-flowered raceme. Flowers small, resupinate, in Asian species white or green. Sepals free. Petals free, strongly oblique. Lip spurred, not mobile, entire. Column-foot absent. Pollinia 2, sectile, caudicles present, stipe absent, viscidium present. Stigma with a single, more or less concave surface.
Distribution
Temperate Europe, Asia, and North America, North Africa, continental Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea; about 40 species.
Distribution in the Philippines
Luzon (Benguet, Bataan, Laguna, Albay), Mindoro, Negros, Camiguin, Mindanao (Davao); 1 species [Platanthera angustata (Blume) Lindl.].
Habitat
Terrestrial in open montane forest and subalpine grassland.
Notes
Differs from Habenaria and Peristylus in the structure of the stigma, which is not distinctly 2-lobed in Platanthera. The species in Southeast Asia are inconspicuous plant with small green flowers. Very rare in cultivation.