Diglyphosa Blume,
Bijdr. (1825) 336
Sympodial terrestrial plants with short to rather long rhizomes. Pseudobulbs consisting of one internode, slender, one-leaved. Leaves not sheathing at the base, glabrous, plicate, not deciduous, convolute, thin-textured. Inflorescence a terminal, few- to many-flowered raceme (very rarely branching) arising on a specialised leafless shoot. Flowers small, resupinate. Sepals free. Petals similar to the lateral sepals. Lip without spur, mobile. Column-foot present. Pollinia 2, solid, caudicles, stipe, and viscidium absent.
Distribution
Northeast India, Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea (including Bougainville). Two species; in New Guinea one, non-endemic, species [Diglyphosa latifolia Blume].
Habitat
Terrestrial in lowland and montane forest.
Notes
A very rare genus in New Guinea, related to Chrysoglossum. It differs from that genus, among other things, in that the column-foot lacks a spur. The dull orange flowers are not unattractive but have, according to most observers, an unpleasant smell, "like chicken shit," as one collector put it.