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Scientific Name
Sarcochilus australis
Family Name
ORCHIDACEAE
Common Name
Gunn's Tree Orchid
Status
Height
Flowers
pendulous racemes of sweetly fragrant green or brown flowers, which have a large, prominant, purple-striped white labellum.
Fruit
Papery capsule
Form
Small epiphyte with long roots, a tuft of flat, thin textured leathery leaves.
Municipalities
Break O'Day; Burnie; Circular Head; Dorset; Flinders Island; Glamorgan-Spring Bay; King Island; Latrobe; Northern Midlands; West Tamar
Communities
Rainforest; Riparian; Wet Eucalypt Forest
Habitat Notes
Most commonly found in sheltered, shady and permanently moist gullies, where it grows on a range of shrubs and trees, usually at about eye level, but also in rainforest and other moist forest types. It is occasionally found on low boulders. Widely scattered but locally fairly common in coastal and near coastal lowland in the east, central north and north-west, and in the Furneaux Group. Also Qld., NSW. and Vic.
Site Tolerance
Moist; Shady; Waterlogged
Frost Tolerance
Tender
Soil Tolerance
Clay; Fertile; Loam; Poor; Poorly-drained; Sandy
General Notes
Does not tolerate prolonged exposure to sun and drying wind. It is most threatened by the clearing of forest around moist gullies, which causes there habitat to dry out permanently, rather than by fires, which often do not affect the gullies. Seedlings colonise suitable areas quickly after disturbance. Well represented in reserves. Suitable below powerlines.
Propagation Details
Propagation Calendar
Flowering Months
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Seed Collecting Months
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Sowing Months
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Cutting Months
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Seed Information
Seed Collection
Seed Treatment Method
Standard
Seed Storage Life
Viable Seeds Per Gram
Seed Treatment Notes
Orchid seeds are very minute yellow, brown or blackish dust-like particles. Orchid seeds are produced within a capsule that splits at maturity and releases tousands to millions of seeds. Dispersed by wind and water and only germinate following infection of the embryo by a suitable mycorrhizal fungus. Very few seeds become mature plants. For more information see Jones, Wapstra, Tonelli, Harris (1999): The Orchids of Tasmania.
Germination Time
Suitable for Direct Seeding
Cuttings
Expected Time to Take Root
Expected Time to Plant Out
Propagation by Division
N.B. Transplant only from nearby to avoid disease.
Cutting Notes
Copyright 2000-2009, Understorey Network Incorporated. Updated 2024-12-12
Database development and website design by
Andrew Smith