''Genoplesium archeri'', commonly known as the elfin midge orchid and as ''Corunastylis archeri'' in

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 ...

, is a small terrestrial orchid endemic to south-eastern Australia. It has a single thin leaf fused to the flowering stem and up to fifteen small, hairy, yellowish green flowers with purple stripes. It grows in a wide range of habitats in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.

Description

''Genoplesium archeri'' 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 thin leaf long and fused to the flowering stem with the free part long. Between two and fifteen yellowish green flowers are crowded along a flowering stem tall and about as tall as the leaf. The flowers are about long and wide and are inverted so that the labellum is above the

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

rather than below it. The dorsal sepal is egg-shaped, about long and wide with hairless edges, purple stripes and a pointed tip. The lateral sepals are linear to lance-shaped, about long, wide and spread widely apart from each other. 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 are egg-shaped, about long and wide with purple stripes and hairless edges. The labellum is purple, broadly egg-shaped, about long, wide, with a curled, sharply pointed tip and coarse hairs up to long on the sides. There is an narrow egg-shaped callus in the centre of the labellum and extending nearly to its tip. Flowering occurs from November to March.

Taxonomy and naming

The elfin midge orchid was first formally described in 1858 by Joseph Dalton Hooker who gave it the name ''Prasophyllum archeri'' from a specimen collected by William Archer near Cheshunt. The description was published in '' The botany of the Antarctic voyage of H.M. discovery ships Erebus and Terror. III. Flora Tasmaniae''. In 1989, David Jones and Mark Clements changed the name to ''Genoplesium archeri'' and in 2002 changed the name again to ''Corunastylis archeri''. 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 ...

(''archeri'') honours the collector of the

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

specimen.

Distribution and habitat

''Genoplesium archeri'' grows in a wide range of habitats including swamp margins and open forest. It is found in New South Wales mainly between Guyra and the Blue Mountains, is widespread in Victoria and in Tasmania at altitudes up to above sea level.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q15462748 archeri Endemic orchids of Australia Orchids of New South Wales Orchids of Victoria (state) Orchids of Tasmania Plants described in 1927