| Family: | Orchidaceae |
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| Common name: | orchid family [Zomlefer, pp. 293-297] |
| Diversity: | Worldwide: 750 genera; 20,000 species U.S.: 21 genera PNW (Hitchcock & Cronquist): 14 genera |
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| Sexuality: | bisexual, rarely unisexual |
| Symmetry: | zygomorphic |
| Inflorescence: | raceme, spikes, or panicles |
| Calyx (sepals): | 3, green and sepaloid or colored and petaloid |
| Corolla (petals): | 3, dissimilar, lower petal often as a lip (=labellum) that is variously modified, sometimes including a spur |
| Androecium: | 1 or 2, pollen usually aggregated into several (2-8) masses (=pollinia), pollinia may have sticky portion for attachment to pollinator |
| Gynoecium: | 3 united carpels, inferior ovary (=epigynous), parietal placentation, 3 stigmas, often two fertile, the third modified into a sterile outgrowth (=rostellum) |
| Fruit: | capsule |
| Other features: | stigma, style, and androecium united into a complex structure called the column (=gynandrium), with anthers above and styles below, separated by rostellum modifications of column are responsible for much of pollinator diversity |
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