Species Information - Thrixspermum platystachys

Thrixspermum platystachys (F.M.Bailey) Schltr., Orchis 5 (1911) 55

Type:

Synonyms:

• Sarcochilus platystachys F.M.Bailey, Syn. Queensland Fl. Suppl. 1 (1886) 56
  - Type: Bancroft s.n. (Johnstone R., VIII-1892) (holo BRI; iso BO, K, MEL)
• Thrixspermum neohibernicum Schltr. in K.Schum. & Lauterb., Nachtr. Fl. Deutsch. Schutzgeb. Südsee (1905) 232
  - Type: Schlechter 13617 (holo B, lost)

Basionym: Sarcochilus platystachys

Epiphytic, ascending, unbranched, 10-15 cm high; roots filiform, elongated, flexuose, glabrous. Stem short, somewhat flattened, leafy, entirely covered with the tightly clasping leaf-sheaths, glabrous. Leaves erect-patent or patent, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, ligulate, apex shortly and unequally bilobulate, at the base somewhat narrowed, rather thick, 6-11 cm long, near the middle 1.5-2.5 cm wide. Inflorescence slender, pedunculate, longer than the leaves; peduncle terete, glabrous; rachis flattened, bracts bilaterally flattened, distichous, ovate, falcate, acute, shorter than the ovary. Flowers opening one by one. Sepals narrowly lanceolate, elongated-sharply acute, 3 cm long, glabrous. Lateral sepals at the base oblique. Petals similar to the sepals and equally long, but narrower, somewhat oblique. Lip at the base concave, oblong-cuneate, 3-lobed, c. 1.3 cm long, to the tips of the lateral lobes 1 cm long; lateral lobes obliquely triangular-oblong, obtuse; mid-lobe almost twice as long as the lateral lobes, triangular-ovate, obtuse; lip inside glabrous; at the very base with an oblong callus, above the base with a bilobed callus. Column short; rostellum deeply emarginate, very short, pollinia obliquely oblong; stipe short square-oblong; viscidium transverse, very small. Ovary subcylindrical, glabrous, c. 1.2 cm long. (After Schlechter, 1905)

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