CRYPTOSTYLIS (concealed column) OVATA (oval leaf).

Cryptostylis is another of the hardy summer flowering orchids. The genus is present in Malaysia, New Guinea, Formosa, the Philippines, New Caledonia and numerous Polynesian Islands.

Five species are present in Australia with just one in Western Australia (Cryptostylis ovata).

Its late flowering, the handsome oval leaf and its persistent habit of surviving from year to year easily recognize the species.

The flower has rudimentary segments with the exception of the large resupinate labellum with its sexual parts concealed underneath.

This pseudo-copulating orchid demonstrates the one to one pollination or plant association where the same type of wasp, Australia wide, fertilizes the orchid.
One photo shows this wasp and another shows the common clumping habit of growth.

Ron Heberle April 2003