Citation: Rich., Mém. Mus. Par. 4:50 (1818).

Derivation: Greek speira, a coil; anthos, a flower.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Terrestrial herbs with elongated underground tubers.

Flowers sessile in a spiral spike; leaves narrow or linear, several, basal or nearly so; perianth-segments subequal; dorsal sepal erect or incurved over the column, ovate, concave; lateral sepals free, ovate-lanceolate, erect or spreading; petals truncate, erect, their posterior margins concealed by the dorsal sepal and forming with that segment a hood; labellum about as long as the sepals, on a very short claw, undivided; the lower half erect with entire margins embracing the column; the tip recurved; the lamina with 2 rounded glandular bodies at the base; column erect, very short, contracted in the lower half, cavity between anthers expanded; anther blunt or very minutely apiculate, incumbent against the back of the stigma, valvate, 2-celled; column wings membranous, stretching between the anther filament and the stigmatic-plate, adnate to the pedicel (style) of the latter and also to the margins of the stigma itself, forming a pouch between the male and female elements; stigmatic surface large, about the same length as the rostellum; rostellum forming with the viscid disk a long membranous structure much exceeding the anther in height; the disk accommodated in a fork of the rostellum and covered by a membranous capsule; pollinia in 2 pairs, granular, the apices of the pairs lightly united, exposed above the anther and attached by a short caudicle to the back of the disk.

Distribution:  Cosmopolitan, with 50-300 species. Represented in Australia by a single species, which extends to New Zealand and also has a wide range over Asia and a portion of Europe.

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available