Rosette leaves 6–11, narrowly elliptical, 15–45 x 5–18mm. Flower stem 150–30 tall, 2– across, 2–8-flowered. Stem bracts 3–5. Flowers widely spaced, porrect, greasy or shiny, 25–30 x 6–8mm, dark green, dark brown or blackish with translucent white patches. Dorsal sepal point filamentous, 3– long, upcurved. Lateral sepals about as wide as hood, flat to concave, glabrous to sparsely hairy, margins incurved, sparsely hairy; free points 6–1 long, deflexed or curved forwards, divergent. Petals with relatively large basal flanges which do not meet, 13–15 x 3.5–4mm. Labellum oblong-ovate, 4.5–6 x 2–2.3mm, dark brown to nearly black, thick, fleshy, shallowly channelled, covered with short hairs; marginal bristles 12–22, 1– long; basal lobe thick, with 8–10 bristles to 1. long.
Widespread and common, growing among litter in tall woodland with sparse understorey, mallee shrubland, low scrub around salt lakes and on granite outcrops in freely draining sands, gravels and clay loam.
Home