Cottonia is monospecific and confined to Sri Lanka and India (southwestern Ghats, Deccan).
Cottonia peduncularis occurs on trees by streams and on rocks in tropical dry, mixed evergreen forests and in tropical savannas at elevations of 350–800 m.
Erect, epiphytic herbs with leafy stems. Leaves alternate, coriaceous, elongate, narrow, unequally bilobed at tip, articulated to a sheathing base. Inflorescence two- or three-branched, with fewflowered racemes; bracts minute, ovate. Flowers fleshy. Sepals spreading, subequal, obovate. Petals spreading, subsimilar to sepals. Labellum sessile at base of column, porrect, much longer than sepals, fleshy, flat, spreading, bee-like, obscurely five-lobed, purple, villose, basal lobes auricular, side lobes shallowly semielliptic, villose on edges, midlobe subpandurate, retuse; calli two, erect, auricular at base of lip, fringed at tip. Column lacking a foot, winged toward tip, puberulous; anther two-celled, pollinia two, pear-shaped, cleft, stipe linear with recurved sides, viscidium minute; stigma U-shaped. Capsule fusiform-oblong.
No uses have been reported for Cottonia; it is rare in cultivation.
