Citation: R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 329 (1810).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Large duck-orehid, flying duck.

Description:
Slender, glabrous, 15-30 cm high; stem green or reddish-brown, wiry; leaf radical, solitary, glabrous, narrow-lanceolate, generally reddish, 5-8 cm long.

Flowers reddish-brown, 1 or 2 on very slender pedicels, the upper flower-bract including a floral rudiment; dorsal sepal linearspathulatc, acuminate on a contracted base, erect or incurved, channelled, c. 12 mm long; lateral sepals slightly longer, reflexed, channelled, slightly divergent, contracted above the middle then narrowly tubular or pointed; petals narrow-linear, erect against wings of the column, c. 9-10 mm long; labellum attached over the column by a long semicircular strap-like claw 5-6 mm long; lamina obovate, peltate, 8-9 mm long, smooth, centre inflated and hollow, cavity open below, produced on the columnar side into a beak-like process, and into a flattened blunt appendage at the distal end; column incurved, very broadly winged from the anther to the base; wings slightly adnate to the claw of the labellum; anther erect, not pointed; stigma circular, prominent, concave; pollinia free, a pair in each cell, elongated, lamellate; no caudicle or viscid disk; rostellum rudimentary.

Published illustration: Fitzgerald (1880) Australian orchids vol. 1, pt 6; Cady & Rotherham (1970) Australian native orchids in colour, pl. 37; Woolcock (1984) Australian terrestrial orchids, pl. 24B.

Distribution:  Forms small colonies in white sands in open Eucalyptus baxteri forest and often associated with Banksia ornata. S.Aust.: SL, SE.   Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Oct. — Jan.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: Pollinated by sexually attracted male wasps (flowers in this State are seldom successfully pollinated).

Author: Not yet available