Thelymitra flexuosa Endl. 1839

Inflorescence Photo by Ron Heberle and the Thelymitra Page of The Species Orchid Society of Western Australia

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Bent Thelymitra [refers to the twisted stem that always turns to the left] In Australia The Twisted Sun Orchid

Flower Size .4 to .6" [1 to 1.5 cm]

Found in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia at elevations of sea level to 250 meters in open hilly forests in well drained, stony to gravely soils as a small to medium sized, cold growing terrestrial with a slender, pinkish, very wiry, zigzaging several times stem with 2, at the points of flexation bracts and carrying a single, terete basally clasping leaf that blooms in late winter through earlky summer on an erect, 8 to 14" [20 to 35 cm] long, fractiflex, 1 to 4 flowered inflorescence with 2 sterile bracts.

Synonyms Macdonaldia concolor Lindl. 1840; Macdonaldia flexuosa (Endl.) D.L.Szlachetko 1995; Macdonaldia smithiana Gunn ex Lindl. 1840; Thelymitra smithiana (Gunn ex Lindl.) Hook.f. 1858

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; AOS Bulletin Vol 27 No 9 1958 as T smithiana drawing ok; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Orchids of Australia Nicholls 1969 drawing fide; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 6 321 - 384 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1975 drawing fide; Native Orchids of Australia Jones 2006 photo fide

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