Citation: Lindley, Gert.& Sp. Orchid. Pl. 507 (1840).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Swamp diuris, little donkey-orchid.

Description:
Small, glabrous, c. 10 cm high, seldom exceeding 18 cm; tubers oblong-conical; leaves 8-10, erect, usually more than half the length of the scape, channelled, setaceous and twisted or very narrow-linear.

Flowers rather small, 1-4 on long slender pedicels, yellow blotched with dark-brown, the dark colour prevailing on the Outside, rarely wholly dark-brown, pervaded by a faint spicy odour; dorsal sepal ovate, c. 8.5 mm long, recurved in the upper half, purple or dark-brown behind the anther, yellowish beyond this; lateral sepals c. 16 mm long, green, free, linear, parallel, spreading below the labellum; petals stalked, more than about half as long as the lateral sepals; the pedicel purplish, narrow-linear, c. 4 mm long; the lamina yellow, usually with a dark-brown vertical stripe on the back, oval, emarginate at the tip, recurved, c. 6 x c. 4.5 mm; labellum lobes erect, c. 4.5 mm long, oblong with rounded crenate anterior margins, margins otherwise entire, yellow on the inner surface, much blotched outside; midlobe oblong, lamina with 2 thick fleshy longitudinal raised lines from the base to beyond the middle, thereafter merging into a single short raised line dilating at the anterior margin into a rounded emarginate eminence; dark-brown spots at the end of the 2 raised lines and also at the tip; anther blunt, rather narrow, a little higher than the rostellum.

Published illustration: Gray (1971) Victorian native orchids 2:93; Woolcock (1984) Australian terrestrial orchids, pl. 34A.

Distribution:  Occurs singly or in small groups in clay, or limestone soils in grassland, open forest or heathland. S.Aust.: FR, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, SE.   Vic.; Tas. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Aug. — Oct.

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

Biology: The name swamp diuris is something of a misnomer as the species is most common in dry situations and does not occur in swamps in this State. Putative hybrids have been recorded with D. longifolia (MU) and D. maculata (MU).

Author: Not yet available