After the mythological dryads, nymphs of trees and forests.
Epiphytic herbs, sympodial, with short creeping rhizomes. Stems not thickened into pseudobulbs, short, slender, erect, covered by papery sheaths. Leaves apical, solitary, thick, narrow, erect. Inflorescences terminal racemes, short. Flowers resupinate, 1-few, small, variously coloured. Sepals fused at base, laterals with a transverse fold near base and forming a pouch with the column foot, free part tailed. Petals much smaller than sepals. Labellum small, long-clawed, 2-lobed at base. Column short, erect, winged or toothed at tip. Pollinia 2, waxy.
About 25 species from C and S America.
Distinguished from Masdevallia by the transverse fold near the base of the lateral sepals and by the long-clawed labellum with 2 basal lobes on the lamina.
Luer (1978b).
Source: (2005). Orchidaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.