Bulbophyllum section Minutissima Pfitzer, in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam., ed. 2, 6 (1889) 180
Minute or small epiphytes. Rhizomes creeping or straggling; rhizome bracts thin, surface glabrous to colliculate, caducous usually including the veins (sometimes only 1 vein present). Roots sprouting below the pseudobulbs, spreading, glabrous to slightly and locally hirsute. Pseudobulbs conspicuous compared to the size of the plant, 1-leafed, with shoots usually sprouting from its basal node and free, not fused to the pseudobulb. Leaves persistent, thick, veins inconspicuous. Inflorescences mainly sprouting from the (sub-)basal node of the pseudobulb, single to few-fasciculate; 1-flowered. Peduncle as long as or longer than the pseudobulbs, often with the top above the leaves, peduncle bracts 3— 5, (sub-)basal, or the upper slightly below half-way the peduncle. Flowers per sympodium 1 open at a time; floral bracts amplexicaul and usually tubular; pedicel with the basal node well above the attachment of the floral bract, longer than the ovary. Sepals free, the laterals not or hardly longer than the median; 1.5— 16 mm long, elliptic to triangular, obtuse to caudate, margins glabrous (? papillose in Bulbophyllum oreocharis); thin, 1— 3-veined, surface glabrous. Petals 0.75— 7.5 mm long, elliptic to (ob-)ovate, retuse to acuminate, margins entire or sometimes slightly erose, glabrous; thin, 1-veined (3-veined in Bulbophyllum ovatitepalum), surface glabrous. Lip mobile on a thin ligament, usually without auricles, sometimes with inconspicuous auricles well above the lip base, undivided, 1— 7.5 mm long, elliptic or oblong, through (ob-)ovate, glabrous; adaxially usually concave near the base, without ridges, or with two more or less converging flexural ridges. Column with the rostellum front projecting beyond the stelidia tips to slightly receding in between, stigma large, usually without keels inside, proximally protruding or not, or with a tooth, column foot usually tapering towards its top, free part virtually absent to long and distinct; tip without teeth. Stelidia 1/2 of the length of the column or shorter; inconspicuous, rounded to triangular, or vestigial, sometimes with a tooth along the upper margin. Anther abaxially with a (low) rounded crest, front concave or not, front margin drawn out into a small, triangular beak or not. Pollinia 2, or 4 with the inner varying from minute to as long as the outer; with or without a small, single stipes.
Distribution
New Guinea: 7 taxa. Altogether 24 provisionally accepted taxa (36 names): Thailand, Sumatra and Java to Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and Pacific.
Notes
Most species in section Minutissima have an elongated, wiry rhizomes and typically grow in mats.
The following taxa in this program belong to this Section:
Bulbophyllum cyclophyllum
Bulbophyllum flavicolor
Bulbophyllum lemnifolium
Bulbophyllum microcala
Bulbophyllum microsphaerum
Bulbophyllum nematorhizis
Bulbophyllum oreocharis
Bulbophyllum trinervium