Aerides or the
Cat's-tail Orchid or the
Fox Brush Orchid, is a genus belonging to the Orchid family (
OrchidaceaeOrchidaceae, the Orchid family, is the largest family of the flowering plants . Its name is derived from the genus Orchis....
) (subfamily
EpidendroideaeThe Epidendroideae, or epidendroid orchids, are a subfamily of the orchid family .The former subfamily Vandoideae has become a specialised clade within a more broadly defined Epidendroideae....
, tribe
VandeaeThe Vandeae is a large monophyletic tribe within the family of orchids.This tribe contains 1,700 - 2,000 species in more than 150 genera. The classification of taxa within this tribe is still largely based on floral morphology...
, subtribe Aeridinae). This genus is abbreviated
Aer in horticultural trade.
They occur mainly in Asia : the Indian subcontinent, Nepal, Southern China, SE Asia, the Philippines, New Guinea.
They form pendulous
racemeA raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...
s with many fragrant, long-lasting, waxy
flowerA flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds...
s, in white, (rarely) yellow, purple or pink colors, with a forward facing spur, growing on stout many-leaved
stemsA stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes, the nodes hold buds which grow into one or more leaves, inflorescence , cones or other stems etc. The internodes act as spaces that distance one node from another...
from the leaf axils.
The
leavesIn botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin. There is continued debate about whether the flatness of leaves evolved to expose the chloroplasts to more light or to increase the absorption of carbon dioxide. In...
grow distichously (in two vertical rows).
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Aerides or the
Cat's-tail Orchid or the
Fox Brush Orchid, is a genus belonging to the Orchid family (
OrchidaceaeOrchidaceae, the Orchid family, is the largest family of the flowering plants . Its name is derived from the genus Orchis....
) (subfamily
EpidendroideaeThe Epidendroideae, or epidendroid orchids, are a subfamily of the orchid family .The former subfamily Vandoideae has become a specialised clade within a more broadly defined Epidendroideae....
, tribe
VandeaeThe Vandeae is a large monophyletic tribe within the family of orchids.This tribe contains 1,700 - 2,000 species in more than 150 genera. The classification of taxa within this tribe is still largely based on floral morphology...
, subtribe Aeridinae). This genus is abbreviated
Aer in horticultural trade.
They occur mainly in Asia : the Indian subcontinent, Nepal, Southern China, SE Asia, the Philippines, New Guinea.
They form pendulous
racemeA raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...
s with many fragrant, long-lasting, waxy
flowerA flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds...
s, in white, (rarely) yellow, purple or pink colors, with a forward facing spur, growing on stout many-leaved
stemsA stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes, the nodes hold buds which grow into one or more leaves, inflorescence , cones or other stems etc. The internodes act as spaces that distance one node from another...
from the leaf axils.
The
leavesIn botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin. There is continued debate about whether the flatness of leaves evolved to expose the chloroplasts to more light or to increase the absorption of carbon dioxide. In...
grow distichously (in two vertical rows). The leaf margins are bilobed, while the apex is emarginate.
There are
liguleA ligule — is a thin outgrowth at the junction of leaf and leafstalk of many grasses and sedges or a strap-shaped corolla, such as that of a ray floret in plants in the daisy family.- Poaceae and Cyperaceae :The ligule is found at the inner base of the leaf between where the leaf attaches to the...
s. Morphologically, they are very similar to Vanda.
There are 25 monopodial
epiphyticAn epiphyte is:Epiphyte is one of the subdivisions of the Raunkiær system. The term most commonly refers to higher plants, but epiphytic bacteria, fungi , algae, lichens, mosses, and ferns exist as well. The term epiphytic derives from the Greek epi- and phyton...
species in this genus, (with the exception of
Aerides krabviensis, which is a
lithophyteLithophytes are a type of plant that grows in or on rocks. Lithophytes feed off moss, nutrients in rain water, litter, and even their own dead tissue....
).