Citation: Hook.f., Fl. Tasm. 2:14 (1858).

Synonymy: P. intricatum C. Stuart ex Benth., Fl. Aust. 6:346 (1873); P. ciliatum Ewart & Rees, Proc. R. Soc. Vic. n.s. 25:111 (1912).

Common name: Variable midge-orchid.

Description:
A slender plant 5-25 cm high; arising from a globular tuber, tubers and base of stem invested in thick fibrous sheaths; leaf lamina sheathing the stem for most of its length; squat raceme of 2-15-flowers.

Flowers on short pedicels, deflexed on the relatively large ovary curved in a semicircle, green or yellowish-green with pale-purple linear markings on the perianth-segments, or the margins of the latter edged with the same colour; dorsal sepal broadly ovate to oblong, deeply cucullate, 4-6 mm long, tip very acute; lateral sepals lanceolate-falcate, 4-7 mm long, greenish, connate at the base, very divergent, not bulging, concave on the inner sides; petals narrowly ovate, falcate, yellowish with 3 purple stripes and more or less purple margins, spreading and recurved, same length as the dorsal sepal; labellum articulated on a semicircular claw, dark-purple, broadly ovate or oblong-ovate with a markedly recurved tip, about the same length as the dorsal sepal; margins entire or slightly crenulate; the anterior half fringed with rather short hairs; callose portion wide, triangular, cleft posteriorly, reaching to the tip or nearly so; anther with a very short point or pointless, higher than the lateral appendages and the rostellum; pollinia 2, attached by a caudicle of medium length to a prominent purple disk; lateral appendages wide, 2-fid, ciliate along the upper half of their outer borders; stigma oval, concave; rostellum very viscid, reaching only a little above to the base of the anther.

Published illustration: Rogers (1914) Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 38:t. 14 as P. intricatum; Cady & Rotherham (1970) Australian native orchids in colour, pl. 34; Woolcock (1984) Australian terrestrial orchids, pl. 46A.

Distribution:  Occurs singly or in small groups in sandy soil around swamp margins but very rare in this State.   Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Feb. — April.

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

Biology: A putative hybrid has been reported with P. despectans (SE region).

Author: Not yet available