The Orchidaceae are a diverse and widespread family of flowering plants, with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant, commonly known as the orchid family.
Rhizanthella, commonly known as underground orchids, is a genus of flowering plants in the orchid family, Orchidaceae and is endemic to Australia. All are leafless, living underground in symbiosis with mycorrhizal fungi. The inflorescence is a head of flowers held at, or just above the ground but mostly covered by soil or leaf litter and little is known about the mechanism of pollination.
Gastrodia, commonly known as potato orchids or as 天麻属 , is a genus of terrestrial leafless orchids in the family Orchidaceae, about ninety of which have been described. Orchids in this genus have fleshy, upright stems and small to medium-sized resupinate flowers with narrow sepals and petals. They are native to Asia, Australia, New Zealand, central Africa, and various islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Gastrodia sesamoides, commonly known as cinnamon bells or common potato orchid in Australia and as the pot-bellied orchid or cinnamon sticks in New Zealand, is a leafless, terrestrial saprophytic orchid in the family Orchidaceae. It has a thin, fleshy brown flowering stem and up to twenty five drooping, brownish, self-pollinating flowers that are white inside. Growing in a wide range of habitats, it is native to Australia and New Zealand.
Gastrodia kuroshimensis is an unusual species of plant that was discovered in April 2016. It is mycoheterotrophic, meaning that it does not engage in photosynthesis like most plants but obtains energy from its host fungi. It is also cleistogamous, meaning that it produces flowers that never open. Since its flowers never open, it is self-fertilizing.
Prasophyllum hectori, commonly known as the swamp leek orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to New Zealand. It has a single tubular, dark green leaf and up to eighty scented, yellow-green flowers with red or brown marking. It is similar to P. colensoi, the only other species of Prasophyllum found in New Zealand, but is distinguished from it by its larger size, larger number of flowers and swampy habitat.
Carlos Adolfo Lehnebach is a New Zealand botanist. He is employed as a botany curator at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Lehnebach studies New Zealand orchids. As of January 2018, he has described seven new species of orchid and two species of forget-me-not (Myosotis) indigenous to New Zealand.
Corybas confusus, commonly known as the spider orchid is a species of terrestrial orchid endemic to New Zealand. It has a single heart-shaped leaf and a single dark green or light green flower with reddish maroon streaks and blotches and long, thread-like lateral sepals and petals. It grows in highland areas on both main islands.
Gastrodia queenslandica, commonly known as rainforest bells, is a leafless terrestrial mycotrophic orchid in the family Orchidaceae. It has one or two small, yellowish brown, tube-shaped flowers on a thin, brittle flowering stem and grows in rainforest in tropical north Queensland, Australia.
Gastrodia molloyi is a species of plant in the family Orchidaceae. It is endemic to New Zealand. It was first formally described in 2016 by Carlos Adolfo Lehnebach and Jeremy Rolfe and the description was published in the journal Phytotaxa. The specific epithet (molloyi) honours the New Zealand botanist, Brian Molloy.
Gastrodia crebriflora, commonly known as dense potato orchid, is a leafless terrestrial mycotrophic orchid in the family Orchidaceae. It has a pale brown flowering stem and up to thirty five crowded, drooping, white to pale brown flowers. It is only known from the Blackdown Tableland in Queensland, Australia.
Amyema lisae, is a species of flowering plant, an epiphytic hemiparasitic plant of the family Loranthaceae first discovered in 2017 at Balinsasayao - Twin Lakes Natural Park, in the island of Negros, Philippines. Amyema lisae differs due with verticillate arrangements of leaves and simple umbels in the inflorescences. Its leaves are also relatively smaller leaves. The 5-merous flowers are tomentose and yellow, making it the only mistletoe species in the Philippines to have a yellow flower.
Gastrodia amamiana is a species of mycoheterotrophic orchid in the family Orchidaceae found in Amami-Oshima and Tokunoshima islands, in Japan. The species was first described in 2019, when Kenji Suetsugu of the Kobe University together with independent scientists Hidekazu Morita, Yohei Tashiro, Chiyoko Hara and Kazuki Yamamuro, came across the flower during a flora survey of the islands’ evergreen forests. The species is cleistogamous, and bears fruit without opening its flower.
Caladenia rosea, also known as pink primrose orchid, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to relatively inaccessible, high lateritic plateaux in a high rainfall area in south-western Western Australia. It is a terrestrial orchid with a single hairy leaf and up to three pink flowers on a thin, sparsely-hairy stem. It is similar to Caladenia flava but is distinguished by the perianth being pink to dark pink with prominent red striping and spotting on the dorsal sepal and lateral petals. Caladenia rosea mimics Hypocalymma robustum (Myrtaceae) in terms of flowering time, colour and scent.
Gastrodia gunatillekeorum is a new species of potato orchid discovered in Sinharaja rainforest and described in 2020. Each with less 100 mature individuals, only three small populations have been discovered as yet. This plant was named after Nimal Gunatilleke and Savithri Gunatilleke.
Gastrodia zeylanica is a species of potato orchids which is endemic to Sri Lanka. It was added to the 2007 Red list of Threatened Fauna and Flora of Sri Lanka as 'critically endangered', on the basis of it having only been collected from a few localities.
Gastrodia spatulata is a species of Gastrodia native to Indonesia and Malaysia. It is known from Borneo and Java.
Rhizanthella johnstonii, commonly known as south coast underground orchid, is a species of flowering plant in the orchid family and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is a subterranean herb that has a horizontal rhizome and a head of up to sixty small white flowers with a pink tinge, surrounded by relatively large, cream-coloured to pale pinkish cream bracts.
Corybas circinatus is a species of flowering plant from the family Orchidaceae endemic to ultramafic habitats on the island of Palawan, Philippines, The endemic helmet orchid was first photographed at Mount Victoria in June 2007. This species is distinct in bearing a small glandular protuberance at the front of its pedicel, a 4-lobed entire labellum, and a distinctive strongly incurved dorsal sepal. The general colouration of the floral and vegetative parts is also highly characteristic, and the general lowland to mid-montane ecology of the species is unique amongst the known Philippines Corybas. The research was initiated by the Philippine Taxonomic Initiative, Inc.
The Philippine Taxonomic Initiative (PTI) is a private Philippine research institute and non-profit organization located in Palawan.
