Common name: Mauve Leek Orchid
Prasophyllum suttonii R.S.Rogers & B.Rees APNI*
Description: Terrestrial herb, to 40 cm high.
Leaf to 20 cm long; lamina short, apex blunt.
Inflorescence usually < 35-flowered, crowded. Flowers almost a crystalline white with purple-mauve flecks and splotches, fragrant. Dorsal sepal ovate to lanceolate, to 9 mm long. Lateral sepals to 7 mm long, usually free and divergent (but sometimes united almost to tips by a rather thin membrane). Lateral petals to 8 mm long, the tips broadening, spathulate, margins sometimes wavy. Labellum to 8 mm long and 3 mm wide, broad-ovate to lanceolate when flattened; in living flowers the lamina strongly recurved, the upper half protruding between the lateral sepals, margins crisped to strongly folded. Callus plate green, with a narrow, central channel and 2-fid at tip. Column wings falcate; rostellum about as high as wings.
Flowering: January–March
Distribution and occurrence: Grows in wet peat bogs, alpine and subalpine heath and grassland, at higher altitudes; south from Brindabella Ra., but chiefly in the Kosciusko N.P.
NSW subdivisions: ST
Other Australian states: Vic.
Text by P. Bernhardt & R. R. Rowe Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 4 (1993)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data ***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
|