Cyrtochiloides Genus

Cyrtochiloides is a small genus of epiphytic orchids in the family Orchidaceae (order Asparagales), described in 2001 by Norris H. Williams and Mark W. Chase in the journal Lindleyana. It was erected to hold a handful of Neotropical epiphytes that had previously been folded into a broad, catch-all concept of the genus Oncidium. Molecular (DNA) evidence showed that these species, exemplified by the type, Cyrtochiloides ochmatochila (based on Oncidium ochmatochilum Rchb.f.), had only a weak genetic connection to the core Oncidium clade, prompting their segregation into a genus of their own.

Cyrtochiloides is most closely related to Cyrtochilum, a larger, mainly South American genus described in 1815, which itself gained wider botanical acceptance following the same molecular work by Williams and Chase together with morphological studies by Stig Dalström. Together with Cyrtochilum, Cyrtochiloides sits within a well-supported clade that also includes Otoglossum, the Andean group Caucaea (formerly treated as Oncidium section Cucullata), and Miltoniopsis — part of the broader reshuffling of the old, expansive Oncidium alliance that molecular phylogenetics has driven since the early 2000s.

The genus is accepted by Kew's World Checklist of Monocotyledons, though as of its description it had not yet been recognized by the International Orchid Register of the Royal Horticultural Society. It comprises a small number of Neotropical epiphytic species, including Cyrtochiloides ochmatochila (with the synonym Cyrtochiloides cardiochila), Cyrtochiloides panduriformis, and Cyrtochiloides riopalenqueana, with at least Cyrtochiloides ochmatochila documented growing in Costa Rica.