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Gastrodia gunatillekeorum is a rare, leafless potato orchid from the Sinharaja rainforest in Sri Lanka, described in 2020 and known from only three small populations. It is a holomycotrophic plant that gets its nutrients from fungi in the soil rather than photosynthesis, so it is not realistically grown as a garden or houseplant.
Gastrodia gunatillekeorum is a new species of potato orchid discovered in Morningside area of Sinharaja rainforest and described in 2020. Each with less 100 mature individuals, only three small populations have been discovered as yet. This plant was named after Nimal Gunatilleke and Savithri Gunatilleke.
It is morphologically similar to Gastrodia spatulata, which is native to Indonesia, due to both species having a white flower with yellowish-orange colouring on the inner wall of the perianth tube and the free part of perianth tube reflexed backwards. The two species however differ in respect to the spathulate to linear petals which are shorter than sepals, fused only at the base and present inside the perianth tube; the labellum are elongate-elliptic and column broadest in the middle part in G.
Gastrodia africana · Gastrodia agnicellus · Gastrodia amamiana · Cooper's black potato orchid · Dense potato orchid · Potato orchid · Tall Gastrodia · Brindabella potato orchid · Gastrodia javanica · Gastrodia kuroshimensis · Western Potato Orchid · Gastrodia molloyi
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Gastrodia gunatillekeorum 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.
