Cryptostylis subulata [Labill.]Rchb.f. 1871 Photo courtesy of Cathy Powers and her AUSTRALIAN TERRESTRIAL ORCHIDS OTHER FLORA & FAUNA BANJORAH Website

Flower from Beneath Photos courtesy of Colin Rowanand his Orchid Website

LATE to EARLY

Common Name The Awl-Shaped Cryptostylis - In Australia The Large Tongue Orchid - The Cow Orchid - The Duckbill Orchid

Flower Size 2 1/2" [6.25 cm]

A large sized, cold growing, terrestrial orchid found at elevations up to 1000 meters in swamps and marshes or in damp sandy soil amid rocks in open woodlands in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania with fleshy roots, 1 to 4, leathery, stiffly erect, ovate-lanceolate, acute, yellow green above, sometimes red beneath, elongate, petiolate leaves that blooms in the spring and fall on an erect, to 3' [90 cm] long, slender, bracteate, few to many [2 to 20] flowered raceme with inverted flowers.

Synonyms Cryptostylis longifolia R. Br. 1910; *Malaxis subulata Labill. 1806

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; The Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb, Launert 1992; Orchids of Australia Riley & Banks 2002; Native Orchids of Australia Jones 2006 photo fide; The Native Orchids of New Zealand, A Colour Field Guide Scanlen & St George 2010 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 #3 2016 as Epidendrum undulatum as Malaxis subulata drawing fide;

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