''Cyanicula nikulinskyae'', commonly known as Philippa's china orchid, granite china orchid and Esperance china orchid is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to the

south-west The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

of Western Australia. It is very similar to ''

Caladenia gemmata ''Caladenia gemmata'', commonly known as the blue china orchid, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has a small, oval leaf and up to three intense blue to mauve flowers. It is ...

'' but has slightly smaller flowers with taller calli. It has a single broad, flattened leaf and up to two pale blue flowers and occurs near Esperance.

Description

''Cyanicula nikulinskyae'' is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous,

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

with an underground tuber and a single flattened leaf, long and about wide. One or two pale blue flowers long and wide are borne on a stalk tall. The dorsal sepal is erect, long and wide and the lateral sepals and petals have similar dimensions. The labellum is long, wide and pale bluish-mauve and white. The sides of the labellum have short teeth, the tip curves downward and there are many rows of cylindrical calli along its mid-line. Flowering occurs from September to early November.

Taxonomy and naming

''Cyanicula nikulinskyae'' was first formally described in 2000 by

Stephen Hopper Stephen Donald Hopper AC FLS FTSE (born 18 June 1951) is a Western Australian botanist. He graduated in Biology, specialising in conservation biology and vascular plants. Hopper has written eight books, and has over 200 publications to his n ...

and Andrew Brown in ''Lindleyana'' from a specimen collected near

Condingup Condingup is a town in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, in the Shire of Esperance local government area, southeast of the state capital, Perth. At the 2016 census, it and the surrounding region had a population of 278. ...

. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''nikulinskyae'') honours the botanical artist, Philippa Nikulinsky.

Distribution and habitat

Phillippa's china orchid mostly occurs between the Fitzgerald River National Park and

Israelite Bay Israelite Bay is a bay and locality on the south coast of Western Australia. Situated in the Shire of Esperance local government area, it lies east of Esperance and the Cape Arid National Park, within the Nuytsland Nature Reserve and the Grea ...

in the Esperance Plains and Mallee

biogeographic regions A biogeographic realm or ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms. They are subdivided into bioregions, which are further subdivided into ecoregions. De ...

where it grows near areas that are wet in winter.

Conservation

''Caladenia nikulinskyae'' is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q10262577, from2=Q59913286 nikulinskyae Endemic orchids of Australia Orchids of Western Australia Plants described in 2000 Endemic flora of Western Australia Taxa named by Stephen Hopper Taxa named by Andrew Phillip Brown