''Bulbophyllum'' sect. ''Cirrhopetalum'' is a

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of the genus ''

Bulbophyllum ''Bulbophyllum'' is a genus of mostly epiphytic and lithophytic orchids in the family Orchidaceae. It is the largest genus in the orchid family and one of the largest genera of flowering plants with more than 2,000 species, exceeded in number o ...

''. The taxon name comes from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''cirrus'' (''fringe'') and

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''petalon'' (''petal''), hence meaning ''fringed-petaled''.

Description

Plants in this genus are usually small plants with creeping rhizomes. Features that distinguish this genus are: *The dorsal

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coine ...

of ''Cirrhopetalum'' is much smaller than the usually inrolled lateral sepal which has adnate margins. *There is generally an umbellate

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

which can be upright, pendulous or arching. *The

pseudobulb The pseudobulb is a storage organ found in many epiphytic and terrestrial sympodial orchids. It is derived from a thickening of the part of a stem between leaf nodes and may be composed of just one internode or several, termed heteroblastic and ...

s are conical-shaped and obscurely angled with a single spoon-like leaf atop each pseudobulb.

Distribution

Plants from this section are found in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and Asia.

Species

''Bulbophyllum'' section ''Cirrhopetalum'' comprises the following species:

References

*Braem GJ. 1986 ''Bulbophyllum'' oder ''Cirrhopetalum''. Orchidee, 37. (5) * *Rysy W. 2004 ''Cirrhopetalum'' - historical overview, critical remarks and new suggestions regarding the genus. Orchid Rev. 112. (1256): 77-81 {{Taxonbar, from=Q15726494 * Orchid subgenera Epiphytic orchids