Monocotyledon

Orchidaceae -- The Orchid Family

Liparis -- The twayblade genus

General Information
	Distribution	A worldwide genus, excluding arctic and antarctic regions, with about 400 species.
	Habit	Perennial herbs, small to medium sized, terrestrial or epiphytic, with compact or elongated pseudobulbs from fleshy rhizomes that root freely at the nodes.
	Leaves	Leaves 1 (in Marquesas) to many, frequently petiolate, with conduplicated blade, either nonarticulate with membranous or chartaceous blade in terrestrial species, or articulate with usually somewhat fleshy or coriaceous blade in epiphytic species.
	Flowers	Inflorescences terminal, racemose, rachis laxly few- to many-flowered. Flowers variable in size from minute to relatively showy, resupinate; sepals free, spreading, similar or the abaxial sepal somewhat narrower; petals free, spreading, similar to sepals or somewhat narrower, labellum sessile or more or less clawed, porrect, entire or variously lobed, frequently with the apex reflexed, base usually with 1 or more thickenings or calli; column either elongate, slender, curved, and with a small wing on either side of stigma, or short, broad, and straight; column foot none; anther terminal, incumbent, operculate, bilocular, pollinia 4, in 2 weakly cohering pairs, waxy, without appendages; rostellum short, broad; stigma under rostellum, recessed.
	Fruit	Fruit a capsule.
	Notes	The name is derived from the Greek liparos, oily or smooth, in reference to the glossy surface of the leaves of some species of the genus.
	Contributor	David Lorence