Mallee Midge Orchid
S1, Fruits, above
Ellura
Mallee Midge Orchid
S1, Sheath
 
                      
Mallee Midge Orchid (Genoplesium nigricans)Class: Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) - Orchids
Order: Asparagus (Asparagales)
Family: Orchid (Orchidaceae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Mallee Midge Orchid (Genoplesium nigricans)
This Photo:     🔍S2, Fruits, profile🔎
Other name: Black Midge-orchid

Thank you Tony and Jenny Dominelli for confirming the id of this species for us

EXTRA - Photo Specific Information:
One of the 2 specimens was covered with bark, so struggling to get into the sun. You can see here quite a different form of head as a result.
General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
We were very excited to find this little single stemmed plant under mallee trees, amounst the leaf/bark litter.
The whole plant is only 160mm tall, with the fruit cluster only 15mm high.
We missed this flowering last year, but now we just caught it in April ... last flower remaining.
In our area the only other midge orchid it could be is Red Midge-orchid (Genoplesium rufum).
In relation to the "sheath" photo, Robert Lawrence said "This genus only has one leaf and that is tightly wrapped around the scape. What you have in this picture is the sheath that protects the new shoot until it emerges from the ground."

Similar Species: Onion-orchid (Microtis cf uniflora)

Copyright © 2019-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 22-Jun-2019
This species is classed as NT (Near Threatened) in the Murray Mallee, SA, by DENR (Regional Species Status Assessments, July 2010)