Citation: Lindley, Sketch Veg. Swan Riv. Col. liii (1840).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Banded green-hood.

Description:
Plant 8-35 cm high; generally without leaves in a basal rosette but in occasional specimens a lateral tuft is present; radical leaves ovate or obovate, on very short petioles; stem leaves well developed, lanceolate, clasping at the base, 6-8 x 1-1.5 cm, the longest leaves in the middle of the stem; leaves within the raceme well developed, while those at the base are small and scale-like.

Flowers sometimes solitary, more frequently several in a compact terminal raceme, nodding, greenish with many red tints and stripes; galea broad, c. 14 mm long from the base to the crest, its aperture directed downwards, the apex ending in a very short acute point, greenish with dark-green or dark-red longitudinal stripes, the petals more or less completely red; lateral sepals (lower lip) reddish, reflexed or recurved, very wide, usually ovate-orbicular, c. 14 mm long and 11-12 mm wide, the lobes with short acute points; labellum on a rather long and very irritable claw, lamina broadly oblong, c. 5 mm long, contracting somewhat abruptly to a blunt point; tip 2-fid and upturned; margins otherwise entire; glandular, margins hairy, the base much thickened and raised into an eminence furnished with a free hairy linear process directed forwards and upwards, the upper surface thereafter concave with a broad raised line down the centre; lower surface longitudinally channelled; column reaching to the crest of the galea, greatly incurved; wings with a small blunt tooth at the upper angle, lower lobe narrow, elongate, almost acute, ciliate, front margins with long inturned hairs; stigma membranous, obovate, not prominent, much expanded laterally, exceeding the column in breadth.

Published illustration: Gray (1966) Victorian native orchids 1:63; Hoffman & Brown (1984) Orchids of south-west Australia, p. 310; Woolcock (1984) Australian terrestrial orchids, pl. 62B.

Distribution:  Occurs singly or in small groups in forest, scrubland, heath or mallee-heathland.   W.Aust.; Vic.; Tas. Conservation status: native Flowering time: May — August.

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

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available