Galeola Lour.,
Fl. Cochinch. 2 (1790) 520
Leafless, apparently monopodial terrestrial climbing plants lacking chlorophyll. Stems much elongated, with both a short scale-leaf and a root at each internode. Inflorescences lateral, branching; rachis and flowers at least partly hairy. Flowers small to medium-sized, resupinate, brownish yellow. Sepals free. Petals free, fairly similar to the lateral sepals. Lip without spur, not mobile, very fleshy, cup-shaped. Column-foot absent. Pollinia 2, mealy, caudicles absent, stipe absent, viscidium absent.
Distribution
Madagascar, tropical continental Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea. About 10 species; in New Guinea one, non-endemic, species [Galeola nudifolia Lour.].
Habitat
In lowland and montane forest, often in open places, rooting in decaying logs.
Notes
Galeola is a most unusual genus of leafless and chlorophyll-less climbers with yellowish or reddish brown stems that may become more than 20 m long. It is similar to Erythrorchis (not yet found in New Guinea, though it may well occur here), in which the flowers and the rachis are glabrous, however.