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Blue Mountains doubletail

Diuris platichila

Blue Mountains doubletail
Photo: Colin Bower, CC BY 3.0 au

Blue Mountains doubletail is a tuberous terrestrial orchid native to a few isolated places in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, with yellow flowers marked with dark patterns in spring. It is a rare wild species, not a common garden plant, and is best left in its native habitat.

Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Orchid
Light
Part shade
Water
Water moderately during its growing season and keep dry during summer dormancy; in cultivation it would need a seasonal dry rest.
Soil
Free-draining, humus-rich soil that stays slightly moist in spring.
Temperature
Cool to mild temperate conditions; cold-tolerant as a native of the Blue Mountains, avoid prolonged heat above 30 °C.
How easy
Hard
Native range
EC. & E. New South Wales
Climate
subtropical

About

Diuris platichila, commonly known as the Blue Mountains doubletail, is a species of orchid that is endemic to a few isolated places in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. It has two leaves and up to eight yellow flowers with dark markings on the dorsal sepal and labellum. It has relatively long, thin lateral sepals and the central lobe of the labellum is wedge-shaped. It forms hybrids with other species of Diuris.

Where it grows

The Blue Mountains doubletail grows in isolated populations in the Blue Mountains. It was previously more common in the area but has declined due to habitat loss and hybridisation with other species, including D. chryseopsis and D. bracteata.

Other Diuris plants

Lemon doubletail · Buttercup doubletail · White donkey orchid · Diuris amabilis · Giant donkey orchid · Tomaree donkey orchid · Golden Donkey Orchid · Little golden moths · Golden Cowslips · Diuris brachyscapa · Diuris bracteata · Short-leaved donkey orchid

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Diuris platichila by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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