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UNDERGROUND ORCHID FACTS |
Map is from The Atlas of Living Australia web site, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License
Common Name
Underground Orchid
Description
The Underground Orchid is an endangered orchid from Western Australia. This strange plant grows under the ground and even flowers below the soil surface level. The plant has a fleshy tuber which produces a flower cluster about 2 cm to 3 cm across containing a mass of about a hundred tiny reddish or maroon coloured flowers. Flowering is in late autumn from May to June. It gains its nutrients from a fungus associated with roots of a woody West Australian shrub, the Broom Bush (Melaleuca uncinata) . The plant can propagate by division of the rhizome
Habitat
bushland in restricted area of the central wheatbelt, where Broom Bush (Melaleuca uncinata) is found
Distribution
Rhizanthella gardneri is found in south west of Western Australia.
Growth Characteristics
Height: 0 cm - grows under the ground
Classification
| Class: | Liliopsida | | Order: | Asparagales | | Family: | Orchidaceae | | Genus: | Rhizanthella | | Species: | gardneri | | Common Name: | Underground Orchid |
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