Flickingeria A.D.Hawkes,
Orquidea (Mexico City) 27 (1965) 301.
Sympodial epiphytes with long, often erect, branching rhizomes. Pseudobulbs conspicuous, shiny, consisting of one or few internodes (and then only uppermost internode swollen), one-leaved. Leaves not sheathing at the base, glabrous, deciduous, duplicate, leathery. Inflorescence terminal, or subterminal on the abaxial side of the leaf, short, carrying a single flower. Flowers medium-sized, ephemeral, resupinate or not. Sepals free. Petals free, usually narrower than the dorsal sepal. Lip without spur, not mobile. Column-foot present. Pollinia 4, solid, caudicles absent, stipe absent, viscidium absent.
Distribution
Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Solomon islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa. About 70 species; in New Guinea c. 8 species.
Habitat
Epiphyte in lowland and montane forest, but not at very high elevations.
Notes
All species of Flickingeria have one-leaved pseudobulbs and flowers that last only a single day (and not even a whole day at that). Most have a bushy habit because of the stiff, branching rhizomes that root at the base and grow upwards, but two of the New Guinea species (Flickingeria convexa and Flickingeria lonchigera) possess a creeping rhizome rooting along its entire length. Members of this genus are not often cultivated, even though the majority are quite easy to grow.
Systematics
Seidenfaden (1980) proposed to divide Flickingeria into three sections, but as at least two of the New Guinea species (Flickingeria homoglossa and Flickingeria lonchigera) do not seem to fit into any of the three, and as the number of species in New Guinea is relatively small, we have not taken up this sectional classification here.