After Professor Oakes Ames (1874–1950), writer on orchids and founder of the orchid herbarium at Harvard University.

Epiphytic herbs, monopodial. Stems short, simple, lacking pseudobulbs, roots fleshy. Leaves in 2 ranks, oblong-elliptic, fleshy. Inflorescences axillary racemes, with triangular bracts, stalk winged. Flowers resupinate, few, mostly white or cream. Sepals and petals similar, elliptic to spoon-shaped, broad, spreading, rounded at tip, the lateral sepals fused to the column foot. Labellum 3-lobed, joined to tip of column foot, with a curved spur at base. Column short, with a distinct foot. Pollinia 2, on a single stipe.

3 species from the Philippines.

Large, mostly white or cream flowers with a long curved spur at base of labellum.

Cootes & Banks (1998).

Source: Jeanes, J. (2005). Orchidaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.