ORCHIDACEAE

Hare's Ears (orchid)

 

0.08m - 0.25m (8-25cm) 

small purfumed flowers that have prominant paired white lateral sepals, hooded red dorsal sepal and erect dark red petals resembling ears. 

Papery capsule 

Colony forming orchid with a bright green, hairless, ovate-lanceolate ground-hugging leaf, wiry scape. 

Break O'Day; Burnie; Circular Head; Dorset; Flinders Island; Georgetown; King Island; Kingborough; Latrobe; Launceston; Meander Valley; West Tamar 

Dry Eucalypt Forest and Woodland; Heath 

Heathland and heathy open eucalypt forest on well-drained peaty and sandy soils. Locally fairly common in low and coastal areas mostly in the north, including King Is and the Furneaux Group. However there is a herbarium record by L.Rodway in 1893 from Sandfly in the south-east. Also in NSW, Vic., SA and WA. 

Dry; Exposed; Shady 

Tender 

Poor; Sandy; Well-drained 

Suitable below powerlines. 

 

Standard 

 

 

Orchid seeds are very minute yellow, brown or blackish dust-like particles. Orchid seeds are produced within a capsule that splits at maturity and releases tousands to millions of seeds. Dispersed by wind and water and only germinate following infection of the embryo by a suitable mycorrhizal fungus. Very few seeds become mature plants. For more information see Jones, Wapstra, Tonelli, Harris (1999): The Orchids of Tasmania.