ORCHIDACEAE

Brown Beaks (orchid)

 

0.3m - 0.45m (30-45cm) 

Strongly perfumed and narrowly segemented brown flowers that have widely spreading sepals and petals, a hooded dorsal sepal and a prominant yellow tipped labellum. 

Papery capsule 

Erect linear-lanceolate, greyish-green leaf, stout dark scape. 

Break O'Day; Burnie; Derwent Valley; Dorset; Glamorgan-Spring Bay; Glenorchy; Hobart; Huon Valley; Kingborough; Tasman 

Coastal Vegetation; Grassy Vegetation; Heath; Sedgeland and Wetland 

Heathy and sedgy open eucalypt forest and woodland, sedgeland, heathland and grassland on poorly drained to well-drained sandy and peaty soils, often in dense vegetation. Locally fairly common in coastal and near coastal lowland areas from north-eastern to south-eastern Tas. However it also occurs on Hunter Is., and there is a 1929 herbarium record from Port Davey in the South-west. Also in Qld, NSW, ACT and Vic. 

Exposed; Moist; Shady; Waterlogged 

Tender 

Poor; Poorly-drained; Sandy; Well-drained 

Flowering is not stimulated by fires (Jones and Clements 1994). Well represented in reserves. 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.