Bryobium queenslandicum

Bryobium queenslandicum, commonly known as the dingy urchin orchid, is an epiphytic or lithophytic clump-forming orchid that has cylindrical, fleshy green pseudobulbs, each with two leaves and between three and twelve small, self-pollinating, cream-coloured or pinkish flowers. This orchid only occurs in tropical North Queensland.

Description

Bryobium queenslandicum is an epiphytic or lithophytic herb that forms dense clumps with crowded, cylindrical pseudobulbs long and wide. Each pseudobulb has two lance-shaped to egg-shaped leaves long and wide. Between three and twelve cream-coloured or pinkish, resupinate flowers about long and wide are arranged on a flowering stem long. The flowers are cup-shaped, self-pollinating and hairy on the outside. The sepal and petals are about long and wide. The labellum is about long and wide with three lobes. The side lobes are erect and the middle lobe turns downward with two ridges near the base. Flowering occurs from August to October.

Taxonomy and naming

The dingy urchin orchid was first formally described in 1948 by Trevor Edgar Hunt who gave it the name Eria queenslandica and published the description in The North Queensland Naturalist. The type specimen was collected by John Henry Wilkie who collected in on Mount Bellenden Ker. In 2002 Mark Clements and David Jones changed the name to Bryobium queenslandicum.

Distribution and habitat

Bryobium queenslandicum grows on trees and rocks in rainforest between the McIlwraith Range and the Tully River.