Calochilus pulchellus D.L.Jones APNI* Description: Glabrous terrestrial herb
Single upright sublinear leaf, sheathing the flowering stem briefly at the base; leaf fully developed at flowering time, longitudinally channelled, roughly trigonous in cross-section, 100–180 mm long, 4–8 mm wide, dark green with a dark red base.
Flowering stem 200–300 mm tall, bearing 1–5 flowers on pedicels 6–12 mm long. Flowers 25–30 mm long by c. 20 mm wide, sepals and petals pale green or greenish yellow with darker reddish longitudinal striations, labellum hairs coppery red. Dorsal sepal triangular-ovate, 13–16 mm tall, 8–9 mm wide at base; lateral sepals subtriangular, 13–16 mm long, 5–6 mm wide at base; petals 8–9 mm long, 5–6 mm wide. Labellum flat, 28–30 mm long, 6–7 mm wide, basal few mm with short red calli (warts), remainder with coarse hairs to 6 mm long, labellum tip a tapering hairless tail 12–17 mm long; column with two small blackish sham ‘eyes’ adjacent to base of labellum, the eyes lacking a connecting ridge.
not observed
Flowering: individual flowers last 2–4 days,
Distribution and occurrence: Southern end of the Sydney sandstone, at the northern end of the South Coast. Dense low wet heath in wet sand over sandstone
NSW subdivisions: SC
Threatened species: NSW BCA: Endangered
Calochilus pulchellus is very similar to C. grandiflorus (Benth.) Domin, but the latter has a shorter leaf (30-50 mm long), a taller flowering stem (300-600 mm tall), and larger flowers (35-45 mm long, 22-28 mm broad, labellum 35-40 mm long). Calochilus grandiflorus is not known to occur south of the Gosford area.
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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