Cyrtostylis is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of orchid.

The genus was first described by Robert Brown

Robert Brown (botanist)

Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...

 in his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae (1810), the type specimen for the genus was Cyrtostylis reniformis

Cyrtostylis reniformis

Cyrtostylis reniformis, commonly known as Small Gnat-orchid, is a species of orchid from Australia....

. It shares many morphological characteristics of another genus, Acianthus

Acianthus

Acianthus is a small genus of 9 species, 8 endemic in Australia and 1 in New Zealand, from the orchid family . Previously there were more species included in Acianthus, but about half of them have now been redistributed to other genuses, such as Acianthella.The name is derived from the Greek words...

, by the same author, and various revisions by botanists have seen this genus included in that same generic boundary. All three species of Cyrtostylis are endemic to the Southwest Botanical Province of Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

;

Cyrtostylis bryceana Cyrtostylis huegelii Cyrtostylis huegelii Cyrtostylis huegelii is a perennial and herbaceous flowering plant, an orchid, found in Southwest Australia. It has also been named as the Midge Orchid, after a small flying insect found in the same region.... Cyrtostylis oblonga Cyrtostylis pectinata Cyrtostylis reflexa

Cyrtostylis reniformis Cyrtostylis reniformis Cyrtostylis reniformis, commonly known as Small Gnat-orchid, is a species of orchid from Australia.... Cyrtostylis robusta Cyrtostylis rotundifolia Cyrtostylis tenuissima