Pachystoma Blume,
Bijdr. (1825) 376
Sympodial terrestrial plants with a subterranean swollen rhizome. Leaf-bearing shoot almost stemless, 1- or 2-leaved. Leaves sheathing at the base, very narrow, glabrous, plicate, often withered at the time of flowering, thin-textured. Inflorescence arising from the rhizome, usually far separated from the leaf-bearing shoot, a few- to many-flowered raceme. Flowers small, resupinate, all parts hairy, including the column. Sepals free. Petals free, narrower than the sepals. Lip without spur, not mobile, at the base with a concavity which is almost closed by a callus on the short column-foot, 3-lobed, the midlobe with 5 to 7 warty keels. Pollinia 8, solid, caudicles present, stipe and viscidium absent.
Distribution
India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Australia, east to New Caledonia. About 6 (possibly only 1) species; one widespread species (Pachystoma pubescens Blume) in New Guinea.
Habitat
In tall grassland at low altitudes, often subjected to periodic fires.
Notes
This may be mistaken for a leafless orchid, as the grass-like leaves have often disappeared at the time the leafless inflorescences carry their small pinkish flowers.