Cryptostylis subulata [Labill.]Rchb.f. 1871 Photo courtesy of Cathy Powers and her AUSTRALIAN TERRESTRIAL ORCHIDS OTHER FLORA & FAUNA BANJORAH Website

Flower from Beneath Photos courtesy of Colin Rowanand his Orchid Website

LATE to EARLY

Common Name The Awl-Shaped Cryptostylis - The Large Tongue Orchid - The Cow Orchid - The Duckbill Orchid

Flower Size 2 1/2" [6.25 cm]

A large sized, warm to cool growing, terrestrial orchid found at elevations up to 1000 meters in swamps and marshes or in damp sandy soil amid rocks in open woodlands in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia with fleshy roots, 1 to 4, leathery, stiffly erect, ovate-lanceolate, acute, yellow green above, sometimes red beneath, elongate, petiolate leaves that blooms in the spring and fall on an erect, to 3' [90 cm] long, slender, bracteate, few to many [2 to 20] flowered raceme with inverted flowers.

Synonyms Cryptostylis longifolia R. Br. 1910; *Malaxis subulata Labill. 1806

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of Australia Riley & Banks 2002; Native Orchids of Australia Jones 2006; The Native Orchids of New Zealand, A Colour Field Guide Scanlen & St George 2010 photo fide;

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