Orchids in this genus have fleshy, upright stems and small to medium-sized resupinate flowers with narrow sepals and petals.

They are native to a region extending from India east to China and Japan, south to Indonesia, New Guinea and Queensland.

The labellum is larger than the sepals and petals, boat-shaped and divided into two main sections, an upper "epichile" and lower "hypochile".

[2][3][4] The genus Aphyllorchis was first formally described in 1825 by Carl Ludwig Blume and the description was published in his book Tabellen en Platen voor de Javaansche Orchideeen.

They are found in India, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea and Australia.