Citation: R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 327 (1810) subsp. rufa.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Rusty-hood.

Description:
Slender to moderately robust, 6-30 cm high; leaves 5-12 in a basal rosette, sessile to shortly petiolate; lamina oblong-lanceolate, 15-25 mm long, thick-textured; stem bracts 2-6, ovate-lanceolate, 15-25 mm long, sheathing and one subtending each pedicel.

Flowers on slender pedicels, 3-15, spreading, red-brown or rarely green, in a raceme; galea 10-14 mm long, with a very short acute apex; lateral sepals (lower lip) recurred or reflexed, ovate-lanceolate, fused basally for three-quarters of their length, concave margins involute and about as long as the galea; the lobes separated by a narrow sinus, shortly acuminate; labellum on a wide green claw, irritable; lamina ovate to oblong, c. 5 mm long, thick and fleshy, brown, flat or concave above, tip straight, slightly notched, very broad; posterior margin thickened, under surface channelled; lateral margins with numerous short glistening white hairs, posterior margins with numerous short hairs; appendage obsolete; column incurved, c. 6 mm long; wings wide, quadrate, ciliate on the inturned edges; stigma ovate, about as wide as the column.

Published illustration: Cady & Rotherham (1970) Australian native orchids in colour, pl. 11; Gray (1971) Victorian native orchids 2:43; Woolcock (1984)Australian terrestrial orchids, pl. 57B.

Distribution:  Occurs singly or in small groups in gravelly or sandy soils in open forest or on rock outcrops in areas receiving greater than 600 mm mean annual rainfall.   W.Aust.; Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Oct. — Dec.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: Plants from the SE are indistinguishable from some eastern State forms but those from the Adelaide Hills have longer more acuminate sepals agreeing more with P. tufa subsp. aciculiformis Blackmore & Clemesha.

Author: Not yet available