Polystachyinae is a subtribe within the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

Vandeae The Vandeae is a large monophyletic tribe within the family of orchids. Scope This tribe contains 1,700 - 2,000 species in more than 150 genera. Epiphytic These orchids are pantropical epiphytes and occur in tropical Asia, the Pacific Islands ...

in family

Orchidaceae Orchids are plants that belong to the family (biology), family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan plants that ...

. It consists of 2 genera and about 228 known species. The

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus (''genus typica'') is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearin ...

of this subtribe is ''

Polystachya ''Polystachya'', abbreviated Pol in horticultural trade, and commonly known as yellowspike orchid, is a flowering plant genus in the orchid family (Orchidaceae). This rather distinctive genus was described by William Jackson Hooker in 1824 and is ...

''. The group is pantropical, being native to tropical

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

primarily, but also to tropical America. Members of this group are

epiphytic An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

and are distinguished from the other subtribes in the tribe

by their

sympodial In botany, sympodial growth is a bifurcating branching pattern where one branch develops more strongly than the other, resulting in the stronger branches forming the primary shoot and the weaker branches appearing laterally. A sympodium, als ...

growth habit and the presence of four

pollinia A pollinium (: pollinia) is a coherent mass of pollen grains in a plant that are the product of only one anther, but are transferred, during pollination, as a single unit. This is regularly seen in plants such as orchids and many species of milkwee ...

. Pollination is mostly by small species of bees, however some species (e.g. '' Polystachya concrete'') exhibit auto-pollination.

Genera

Genera in this subtribe are listed below: *''

Hederorkis ''Hederorkis'' is a genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae. It contains two known species, both native to islands in the Indian Ocean (Seychelles and Mauritius). Description As opposed to ''Polystachya'' (the largest gen ...

'' Thouars, 1809 (2 sp.) *''

'' Hook., 1824 (224 spp.)

Phylogeny

The subtribe Polystachyinae is the sister group to the remaining subtribes of Vandeae s.l.:Freudenstein, J. V., & Chase, M. W. (2015)
"Phylogenetic relationships in Epidendroideae (Orchidaceae), one of the great flowering plant radiations: progressive specialization and diversification."
Annals of botany, 115(4), 665-681.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q3907767 Orchid subtribes