''Dendrobium linguiforme'', commonly known as the thumbnail orchid, tick orchid or tongue orchid, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It grows on trees or on rocks, with wiry,

prostrate Prostrate may refer to:- *Prostration, a position of submission in religion etc. *Prone position, a face-down orientation of the body *Prostrate shrub A prostrate shrub is a woody plant, most of the branches of which lie upon or just above the ...

stems, prostrate, fleshy leaves and spikes of up to twenty white to cream-coloured flowers in early spring.

Description

''Dendrobium linguiforme'' is an epiphytic or

lithophytic Lithophytes are plants that grow in or on rocks. They can be classified as either epilithic (or epipetric) or endolithic; epilithic lithophytes grow on the surfaces of rocks, while endolithic lithophytes grow in the crevices of rocks (and are als ...

orchid with prostrate stems that produce wiry roots along almost their whole length. The roots are long and in diameter. There is a single leaf at the end of each branch of the stem. The leaf is oblong to egg-shaped, long and wide. It is thick and succulent with the upper surface smooth but with ridges and furrows. Up to twenty flowers are arranged in a

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

long. The dorsal sepal is linear to narrow lance-shaped, long and wide, the lateral sepals are long and wide, the

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s slightly smaller. The petals and sepals are white to cream-coloured. The labellum is cream-coloured with pale purple markings and is long and wide. Flowering occurs in September and October.

Taxonomy and naming

The species was first formally described in 1800 by

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

botanist Olof Swartz and the description was published in ''Kongliga Vetenskaps Academiens Nya Handlingar''. In 1981, the German botanist, Friedrich Brieger transferred the species to ''Dockrillia'' as ''D. linguiformis'' but the change has not been accepted by the herbarium of the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney and other sources. 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 ...

(''linguiforme'') is derived from the Latin words ''lingua'' meaning "tongue" and ''forma'' meaning "shape".

Distribution and habitat

Tongue orchid occurs in New South Wales and Queensland where it grows on rocks and trees, usually in sclerophyll forest and sometimes in

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

or in rocky places. In New South Wales it occurs on the coast and tablelands north of

Ulladulla Ulladulla is a coastal town in New South Wales, Australia in the City of Shoalhaven local government area. It is on the Princes Highway about south of Sydney, halfway between Batemans Bay to the south and Nowra to the north. Ulladulla has c ...

and inland as far as Gungal and Tamworth. In Queensland it is found from the

Atherton Tableland The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau which is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. The principal river flowing across the plateau is the Barron River. It was dammed to form an irrigation reservoir named Lake Tina ...

to Townsville and south from Gympie to the New South Wales border.

Gallery

File:Tongue Orchid West Head Track2.jpg, Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park,

File:Tongue Orchid West Head Track3.jpg, Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park File:Dockrillia linguiforme.jpg File:Tongue Orchid West Head Track.jpg, Growing near West Head in Ku-ring-gai Chase N.P. File:Dendrobium linguiforme 01.jpg, Growing in the Oxley Wild Rivers N.P.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q5287233, from2=Q52268644 linguiforme Endemic orchids of Australia Orchids of New South Wales Orchids of Queensland Epiphytic orchids Plants described in 1800