Leaf 80–160 × 2–4 mm. Flower stem 100–25 tall, 1–3-flowered. Flowers 30–60 mm across, with a strong smell like burnt metal, cream with red markings; sepals and petals with long, dark red-brown, filamentous tips which often tangle. Dorsal sepal erect, 35–70 × 1.5–2 mm. Lateral sepals stiffly decurved, 45–70 × 2–3 mm. Petals obliquely erect to nearly horizontal, 25–60 × 1.5–2 mm. Labellum 4–6.5 × 4–5 mm, cream with red lines and markings; margins with short, blunt teeth; tip recurved. Calli anvil-shaped, cream sometimes with reddish markings, 6–10 pairs in 2 rows. Column 5–6 × 3–4 mm, pink to red.
Widespread and common in many habitats, especially mallee vegetation, but also shrubland, woodland, granite outcrops and margins of salt lakes, always in freely draining soil; also among shrubs on limestone escarpments overlooking the Southern Ocean.
Home