Epiblema grandiflorum
Epiblema grandiflorum, commonly known as babe-in-a-cradle, is the only species in the flowering plant genus Epiblema in the orchid family, Orchidaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a colony-forming orchid which grows in peaty swamps near the coast. Its flowers are purple with ribbon-like strands attached to its labellum and a broad, petal-like column.
Description
Epiblema grandiflorum is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, sympodial herb with a few inconspicuous, fine roots and an oval-shaped tuber lacking a protective sheath. The tuber produces replacement tubers on the end of short, root-like stolons. There is a single, tubular leaf about long, about wide at the base of the plant.There are between two and eight resupinate flowers on the end of a wiry stem high. The flowers are purple, long and wide, on a short stalk surrounded by a leaf-like bract. The three sepals and two lateral petals are free from, and more or less similar to, each other. The labellum is similar in size, shape and colour to the petals and has a callus consisting of a swelling with ribbon-like or club-shaped appendages. The sexual parts of the flower are fused to the column, which is erect and has wing-like structures on its sides. Flowering occurs from late November to January and is followed by the fruit which is a non-fleshy, glabrous, dehiscent capsule containing a large number of seeds.
Taxonomy and naming
This orchid was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown and the description was published in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae.The genus name Epiblema is an Ancient Greek word meaning "a coverlet" or "something thrown over" and the specific epithet "grandiflora" is derived from the Latin words grandis meaning "noble" or "magnificent" and flos meaning "flower".