Renanthera

Vandeae subtribe Aeridinae. Some authors maintain Renantherella as a separate genus based on its proportionately longer column.

Vining monopodial epiphytes. Stems elongate, leafy, rooting at the nodes. Leaves alternate, distichous, usually bilobed at the apex, leathery. Inflorescences axillary racemes or panicles, suberect to horizontal, when paniculate the branches oriented in one plane. Flowers showy, brilliantly-colored, yellow with orange-red spots to deep vermillion. Sepals and petals free, spreading, the lateral sepals usually much larger and clawed. Lip three-lobed, with paired calli at the throat, with a short spur. Column short to elongate (Renantherella); pollinia 4, in two unequal pairs, with a stipe and viscidium.

From the Latin renes, meaning kidney, and anthera, meaning anther, in allusion to the kidney-shaped pollinia.

A genus of 17 species ranging from Nepal to the Philippines, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.

Averyanov, L. V. 1997. Renanthera citrina. Orchids 66(12):1284-1290.

Christenson, E. A. 1986. Renanthera auyongii, a new species from Sarawak. Orchid Review 94(1114):264-265 (reprinted in Orchid Digest 50(5):169-170. 1986.

Holttum, R. E. 1986. On Aerides elongata Bl. (Orchidaceae). Kew Bull. 41(2):347-348.

Kamemoto, H. and K. Shindo 1962 1962. Genome relationships in interspecific and intergeneric hybrids of Renanthera. Amer. J. Bot. 49:737-748.

Mahyar, V. W. 1988. Observations on some species of the orchid genus Renanthera Loureiro. Reinwardtia 10(4):399-418.

Quisumbing, E. 1950. The genus Renanthera of the Philippines. Philip. Orchid Rev. 3:3-11.

Rice, R. 2000. Renanthera, the Scarlet Ladies of vandaceous orchids. Orchids Austral. 12(6):16-20.

Senni, S. and P. G. Latha 1992. Foliar regeneration of the endangered Red Vanda, Renanthera imschootiana Rolfe (Orchidaceae). Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Cult. 29:167-172.

Voelker, E. J. 1970. Culture of Renanthera monachica. Amer. Orchid Soc. Bull. 39:881-884.