A new colony of Arthrochilus prolixus was found in February 2011 at Tumbi Wetlands Bushcare. It is the first sighting of this orchid in NSW near Sydney since 2000. It consists of 2 stems – about 18 cm high and within 30 cm of each other. Only one of these two shoots is shown in the photo. As you can see the flowers are very small – on one of the stems there were at least 15 flowers. This rare orchid appears to have no leaves – as the base of the stem is bare; however it is surrounded by tiny rosettes of leaves growing on separate lateral shoots from an underground tuber. They are shown in the left panel of the photo. The right hand side shows an expanded view of about the top quarter of the flower stem at the left.

Scale in cms
Created on February 10,  2011