Acianthus
Described in 1810 by R. Brown in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulare van Diemen, this is a group of mainly tuberous terrestrial plants, probably with 30 species represented.
The genus is distributed in Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands.
Etymology: The source of the name is Greek acis (point) and anthos (flower) in reference to the finely-pointed segments of many of the species.
The type species (genotype) is A. exsertus R. Brown (designated in Clements, 1989).
Similar and related genera include Corybas
Salisbury (in leaf), Townsonia
Cheeseman (which is often included in Acianthus), Cyrtostylis
R. Brown and Pantlingia
Prain.
Characteristics: Species in this genus are distinguished by a solitary, heart-shaped leaf that is carried above the ground surface, and erect raceme with few to many small flowers in which the sepals are much larger than the petals, the labellum is obscurely lobed to entire and the flowers are subtended by foliaceous bracts. The column is slightly curved to arched, and lacks a foot.
A. fornicatus (imagery courtesy of Greg Steenbeeke).
The full taxonomic description of this genus is
Reference material consulted in developing this page has included (but is not limited to) Index Kewensis (1998 CDrom version),
Clements (1989), Jones (1988), Brummitt & Powell (1992),
Dressler (1993b) and Szlachetko (1995).
A. fornicatus
(Image courtesy of Greg Steenbeeke).