Microtis parviflora

Slender onion-orchid
Microtis parviflora growing on Black Mountain in the A.C.T.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Orchidaceae
Subfamily:	Orchidoideae
Tribe:	Diurideae
Genus:	Microtis
Species:	M. parviflora
Binomial name
Microtis parviflora R.Br.

Microtis parviflora, commonly known as the slender onion-orchid, is a species of orchid which is native to Australia and New Zealand. It occurs in all states of Australia but is not known from the Northern Territory. As with others in the genus, it has a single erect, smooth, tubular leaf and up to eighty flowers on an erect flower spike.

Microtis parviflora is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and a single erect, smooth, tubular leaf 20–50 cm (8–20 in) long. The leaf is pointed at the end and usually longer than the flower spike. Between ten and eighty small green flowers are crowded on an erect, fleshy raceme 20–50 cm (8–20 in) tall. Each flower has a pedicel about 1 mm (0.04 in) long allowing the flower to stand out from the spike. The ovary is more or less oval in shape, 3–5 mm (0.1–0.2 in) long. The sepal is egg-shaped to round, about 2 mm (0.08 in) long and with the petals forms a hood over the column. The sepals are linear in shape, slightly shorter than the dorsal sepal, and roll back as they age. The labellum is 1 or 2 mm (0.04 or 0.08 in) long, more or less heart-shaped and turns downwards in a semi-circle. There are two relatively large, egg-shaped calli at the base of the labellum. Flowering occurs from October to February, or to March in New Zealand.

Microtis parviflora was first formally described by Robert Brown in 1810 and the description was published in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen. The specific epithet (parviflora) is derived from the Latin words parvus meaning "small" and florus meaning "flowered".

...
Wikipedia