Tetramicra

Epidendreae subtribe Laeliinae. The genus is divided into three subgenera on the degree of lobing of the lip and the fleshiness of the stems.

Terrestrials, lithophytes, or epiphytes, often trailing. Roots coarse. Leaves linear, succulent, basal. Inflorescences terminal, erect, long-pedunculate racemes, the floral bracts minute. Flowers resupinate. Sepals and petals free, spreading, subsimilar. Lip unlobed or three-lobed, usually without callus, free or partially fused with the column. Column club-shaped, broadly winged, without foot; pollinia 8, four larger and four smaller, connected by four caudicles.

From the Greek tetra, meaning fourfold and mikros, meaning small, referring to the four smaller pollinia.

A genus of ten species from the West Indies.

Dod, D. D. 1985. El curioso genero “Tetramicra.” Bol. Soc. Dominicana Orquideol. 2(4):4-10.

Sauleda, R. P. and R. M. Adams 1979. The rediscovery and typification of Tetramicra urbaniana Cogniaux (Orchidaceae) from the Bahama Islands. Taxon 28(4):363-365.