''Zeuxine oblonga '', commonly known as the common jewel orchid is a species of orchid that is endemic to northern

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 has up to seven narrow egg-shaped leaves and up to thirty small green and white flowers crowded along a fleshy, hairy flowering stem. It mainly grows in wet forest and rainforest.

Description

''Zeuxine oblonga'' is a terrestrial, tuberous, perennial

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 ...

. It has between three and seven dark green, narrow egg-shaped leaves, long and wide which form a loose rosette. Between five and thirty

resupinate Resupination is derived from the Latin word ''resupinus'', meaning "bent back with the face upward" or "on the back". "Resupination" is the noun form of the adjective "resupine" which means "being upside-down, supine or facing upward". The word " ...

, dull green and white flowers, about long and wide are crowded on a fleshy, hairy, pinkish flowering stem tall. The outside surface of the flowers is hairy. The dorsal sepal is about long, wide and overlaps 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 forming a hood over 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. ...

. The dorsal sepal is green with pink edges, the lateral sepals are green and the petals are white. The lateral sepals and petals are about long and wide with the lateral sepals spreading apart from each other. The labellum is white, about long, wide with two lobes on the end. Flowering occurs from July to September.

Taxonomy and naming

''Zeuxine oblonga'' was first formally described in 1920 by Richard Sanders Rogers and Cyril Tenison White and the description was published in ''

Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland ''Proceedings of The Royal Society of Queensland'' is a multidisciplinary scientific journal published by The Royal Society of Queensland The Royal Society of Queensland was formed in Queensland, Australia in 1884 from the Queensland Philo ...

''. 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 ...

(''oblonga'') is a Latin word meaning "longer than broad".

Distribution and habitat

The common jewel orchid is endemic to northern

and has been recorded from the far north-east of Western Australia, between the

Keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...

and Adelaide Rivers in the Northern Territory and from the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland to

Coffs Harbour Coffs Harbour is a city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. It is one of the largest urban centres on the North Coast, with a population of 78,759 as per 2021 census. The Gumbaynggirr ...

in New South Wales. It usually grows in colonies on dark, moist sites on the rainforest floor, and is locally common in swampy areas with peaty soils next to streams.

Conservation

In the Northern Territory ''Z. oblonga'' is listed as

Vulnerable Vulnerable may refer to: General * Vulnerability * Vulnerability (computing) * Vulnerable adult * Vulnerable species Music Albums * ''Vulnerable'' (Marvin Gaye album), 1997 * ''Vulnerable'' (Tricky album), 2003 * ''Vulnerable'' (The Used album) ...

because there it has an estimated population size of fewer than 1000 individual plants, and an estimated area of occurrence of less than in the territory. Potential threats include feral animal disturbance, changes to hydrology and horticultural harvesting. In Western Australia the species is classified as " Priority Two" 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 ...

meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q734712 oblonga Endemic orchids of Australia Orchids of Queensland Orchids of New South Wales Orchids of the Northern Territory Plants described in 1920