Brown Cap Orchid: Stegostyla ustulata

We had the pleasure of a visit by Jean and Bill Egan from Canberra who are very good orchid finders and identifiers. So of course we took them to see the spots where we know there are orchids growing.

So of course they found about 50 X as many plants and of many different species.  There will be many posts and photos to come as the Diuris, Thelymitra and Microtis come into flower (the latter undoubtedly proving a special challenge to my photography).  Today most of those named in the last sentence were merely leaves, photographs of which would not excite anyone.  However we did find a couple of plants of white "not-calandenia" which are the subject of this post.

For the benefit of the purists, this is Stegostyla ustulata. I will begin with a photo by Frances which shows the flowers and their environment (ie leaf-littered grassy woodland.
The next image (a moi) shows another specimen from a different position.
 The final image is a close up of the labellum of the plant in my image which shows how the teeth on the side of the labellum go right down the side.  In the otherwise very similar species (S. mochata) the teeth stop much further out on the labellum. 
The identification was also eased by the timing of flowering: S. moschata is a bit later and S. cuculata a bit later again.  (Of course timing is all relative to the situation of the plants: 'calendar now' in Carwoola could well be ecologically much later in areas at lower elevation and or closer to the coast.)

Comments

Denis Wilson said…
That must be a "local" species, Martin.
I have similar, but different ones up here.
Nice plant.
It makes me laugh that Jones describes some as having a certain smell (usually a "musky odour" - its hard enough to photograph them let alone sniff the "labellum".
Cheers
Denis
20 October 2010 at 23:14:00 GMT+11
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