Prasophyllum pallens
Prasophyllum pallens, commonly known as slaty leek orchid or musty leek orchid, is a species of orchid in the family Orchidaceae and is endemic to New South Wales. It has a single tubular, green leaf and up to thirty fragrant, pale tawny green to whitish flowers on a flowering stem.
Description
Prasophyllum bagoense is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and a single tube-shaped leaf, long and wide. Between fifteen and thirty flowers are crowded along a flowering spike long, reaching a height of. The flowers are crowded, pale tawny green to whitish, long and wide. As with others in the genus, the flowers are inverted so that the labellum is above the column rather than below it. The dorsal sepal is egg-shaped to lance-shaped, long, about wide and tapers to a point. The lateral sepals are pointed and project forwards, long and about wide. The petals are linear to oblong, long and wide. The labellum is lance-shaped but constricted near the middle, long and wide with a pale yellowish callus extending nearly to the tip of the labellum. Flowering occurs from October to December, usually in the absence of fire. The flowers are described as being both "sweetly fragrant" and as having "a rather unpleasant musty fragrance".Taxonomy and naming
Prasophyllum pallens was first formally described in 2000 by David Jones from a specimen collected on Mount Banks and the description was published in The Orchadian.The specific epithet means "pale".