Gastrodia sesamoides – Australian native potato orchid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrodia_sesamoides

Its leafless and saprophytic, so you only see it when it flowers or you dig it up accidentally.

The spikes are quite minimal but attractive when the flowers open.

Our backyard has been fully converted for some 10 years to growing mainly native plants. We have a lot of these orchids growing wild now along with a number of other native ground orchids including various green hoods, caladenia etc. I have been spreading them about the place each year as I find them and there are now about 4-5 significant clumps and about 15-20 other single plants moving about as they wish in the garden. They move location frequently and quickly each season and grow to the size of a small potato [about 10cm long and 2-3cm thick] once growing happy in the environment. You often find about 2-3 of them near each other – I assume they may break up or split or something – its hard to tell as they are mostly moving about underground about 5 cm below the surface in the soil. The flower spikes are about up to 1 meter high once mature and growing strong. They have a very slight scent when they first open in the morning.

They are coming to the end of flowering in December this year.

Please excuse the grass and aluminium plant weeds etc there in the clump photo 🙂 it’s hard to stay on top of that stuff all the time.