Prasophyllum australe
R.Br. Austral Leek-orchidFlowering stem slender, 25–90 cm tall. Leaf-blade green, slender to robust, to c. 30 cm long and 8 mm diam. at base, red-streaked. Flowers green-brown with reddish stripes and white, fragrant, numerous in a narrow spike 6–20 cm long; ovary subcylindric, elongate, appressed to rachis, 6–10 mm long; sepals ovate-lanceolate, 8–10 mm long, acuminate, streaked green and brown, lateral sepals united, erect; petals similar to sepals, horizontal. Labellum conspicuous, white, base pouched, lamina strongly recurved, prominently crenulate-crisped toward margin, callus plate tuberculate, ending in a pair of winged ridges. Column appendages falcate, c. 4 mm long, pink. Flowers Oct.–Jan.
Wim, GleP, VVP, GipP, OtP, WaP, CVU, GGr, DunT, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, OtR, Strz. Also SA, Qld, NSW, Tas. Locally common in bogs and damp depressions in heath or woodland, persisting in lightly grazed farmland. Flowers late Oct.-Jan. Widespread and common across southern Victoria in open forest, heathland or grassland in water retentive soils.
Flowering is observed more often after fires.
A distinctive species, remarkably constant throughout its wide range.
Bates, R.J. (1994). Prasophyllum. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 869–886. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
