List of the orchids of Western Australia

Diuris brumalis - Donkey Orchid

Among the many wildflowers in Western Australia, there are around one thousand species of orchids.

Early identifications

One of the first botanists to study Western Australia was Archibald Menzies, aboard HMS Discovery, who explored King George Sound in 1791. Many of the samples (including orchids) were lost in the return to England, but those that did survive were documented in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen, published by Robert Brown in 1810.

The first three orchids from Western Australia to be named were Calaenia menziesii (named after Menzies), Caladenia flava, and Diuris longifolia.

In 1802 Robert Brown himself collected 500 specimens of flora from Western Australia, including:

• Diuris emarginata var. emarginata
• Diuris emarginata var. pauciflora
• Diuris setacea
• Epiblima grandiflorum
• Microtis alba
• Microtis media
• Microtis pulchella
• Prasophyllum gibossum
• Prasophyllum macrostachyum
• Thelymitra canaliculata
• Thelymitra tigrina
• Thelymitra fuscolutea

In West Australian Orchids (1930), Emily Pelloe described and illustrated an extensive survey. She provided an English text, paintings, and drawings for the amateur reader, a mixture of impression and scientific illustration of the genera.

Orchids of South Western Australia

Rhizanthella gardneri

Common name	Genus	No. species in southwest W.A.	Remarks
Babe-in-a-cradle	Epiblema	1
Beak orchids	Burnettia	1
Beard orchids	Calochilus	27
Blue orchids	Cyanicula	10
Bunny orchids	Eriochilus	9
Donkey orchid	Diuris	>50
Duck orchids	Paracaleana	13
Elbow orchid	Spiculaea	1
Enamel orchids	Elythranthera	2
Greenhoods	Pterostylis	~200
Hammer orchids	Drakaea	10
Hare orchid	Leporella	1
Helmet orchids	Corybas	~130
Leafless orchid	Praecoxanthus	1
Leek orchids	Prasophyllum	110
Mignonette orchids	Microtis	20	also Onion orchid
Mosquito orchids	Cyrtostylis	5
Potato orchids	Gastrodia	61	also Bell orchid
Pygmy orchids	Genoplesium	30–40
Rabbit orchid	Leptoceras	1
Rattle beaks	Lyperanthus	2
Slipper orchids	Cryptostylis	23	also Tongue orchid
South African orchids	Disa bracteata	1	introduced
Spider orchids	Caladenia	243
Sun orchids	Thelymitra	~93
Underground orchids	Rhizanthella	3

• This table has its source as the Second Edition of Hoffman and Brown in 1992

References

Diuris
plate III from West Australian Orchids, 1930

1. Heberle, Ron L. "History of Orchid Collecting in Western Australia, 1791 - 1971". The Species Orchid Society of Western Australia (Inc). Retrieved 2005-09-29.

Further reading

• Hoffman, Noel and Andrew Brown (1996). Orchids of South-West Australia. Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press. ISBN 1-875560-51-3.
• Dixon, Kingsley W., Bevan J. Buirchell and Margaret T. Collins (1989). Orchids of Western Australia : cultivation and natural history. Victoria Park: Western Australian Native Orchid Study and Conservation Group. ISBN 0-7316-9213-6.
• Hopper, Stephen D. and A. P. Brown (2001). "Spider, Fairy and Dragon Orchids of Western Australia". Nuytsia 14 (1/2).
• Hopper, Stephen D. and Paul Gioia (2004). "The Southwest Floristic Region of Western Australia: Evolution and Conservation of a Global Hot Spot of Biodiversity". Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 35: 623–650. doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.35.112202.130201.
• Heberle, Ron L. (1991). "Thelymitra, the Sun Orchids of South Western Australia - The genus" (PDF). Proceedings of the 12th Australian Orchid Conference, Perth. OSWA. pp. 40–43.
• George, Alexander Segger and Herb E. Foote (1971). Orchids of Western Australia. Perth: Westviews.
• George, Alexander Segger (1971). "A checklist of the Orchidaceae of Western Australia". Nuytsia 1 (2): 166–196.

External links

• The Species Orchid Society of Western Australia (Inc) — a gallery of orchids from Western Australia
• Orchids from Western and South Australia
• Terrestrial orchids of the south west western australia
• Orchid Conservation Coalition