Genoplesium alticola
Genoplesium alticola, commonly known as tableland midge orchid, is a small terrestrial orchid endemic to Queensland, Australia. It has a single thin leaf fused to the flowering stem and up to twenty five small, hairy, dark purplish-red and green flowers. It grows in two small areas of the state at altitudes between.
Description
Genoplesium alticola is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and a single thin leaf long and fused to the flowering stem with the free part long. Between ten and twenty five dark purplish-red and green flowers are well spaced along a flowering stem tall but lower than the leaf. The flowers are long, about wide and are inverted so that the labellum is above the column rather than below it. The dorsal sepal is egg-shaped, about long and wide with darker edges and three lines along its centre. The edges of the dorsal sepal have short, dark hairs. The lateral sepals are linear to lance-shaped, dark purplish red, about long, wide and spread widely apart from each other. The petals are a broad egg-shape, dark purplish red with marking similar to those on the dorsal sepal and are about long and wide densely hairy edges. The labellum is elliptic to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, about long, wide, with short, coarse hairs on the sides. There is an oblong callus in the centre of the labellum and covering about half of its surface. Flowering occurs between December and February.Taxonomy and naming
Genoplesium alticola was first formally described in 1991 by Australian botanists David Jones and Bruce Gray from a specimen collected near Danbulla and the description was published in Australian Orchid Research.While the name Genoplesium alticola is accepted by Plants of the World Online, it is not accepted in Australia — instead the later name Corunastylis alticola is recognised by both the national and Queensland authorities.