Citation: R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 328 (1810).

Synonymy: Hymenochilus muticus, Oligochaetochilus muticus

Common name: Midget green-hood.

Description:
A small slender glabrous species, usually 7-10 cm high; leaves 4-8, in a radical rosette, on very short petioles; lamina ovate to elliptical, 15-20 mm long; stem bracts acute, sheathing, often withered at flowering time, 1-9, variable in size and often rather large and 1 subtending each pedicel.

Flowers green, 2-8, in a slightly spiral spike; galea nearly 7 mm long, incurved, broad, blunt; lateral sepals (lower lip) reflexed or spreading, shorter than the galea, the lobes short, broad, hardly acute; labellum attached by a wide and moderately long claw (c. 1 mm) to the foot of the column, quadrate, tip broadly rounded and slightly emarginate; lamina c. 2.5 mm long, traversed by a raised central line; appendages large, c. 1.25 mm long, oblong, fleshy, the tip turned backwards (as the letter S); column c. 6 mm long, reaching almost to the top of the galea; wings quite rounded, anterior margin ciliate, almost semicircular, without any tooth, the lower lobe bluntly triangular, ciliate; stigma narrow-elliptical.

Published illustration: Fitzgerald (1876) Australian orchids, vol. 1, pt 2; Gray (1971) Victorian native orchids 2:50; Pocock (1972) Ground orchids of Australia, pl. 121.

Distribution:  Occurs singly or in scattered colonies in alkaline soils, rocky areas or on coastal or inland dunes; in mallee, semi-arid scrub-lands or in Callitris forest. Common and widespread in areas receiving 250-500 mm mean annual rainfall. S.Aust.: NU, FR, EA, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, SE.   All States except the N.T. Conservation status: native Flowering time: July — Sept.

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

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available