The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Thelymitra
Thelymitra, commonly known as sun orchids, is a genus of more than 100 species of plants in the orchid family, Orchidaceae. Unlike most other orchids, sun orchids lack a highly modified labellum and all three petals are similar in size, shape and colour. The column is, however, highly modified and usually has prominent wings or glands which are helpful in identifying the species. Most sun orchids close their flowers at night, in cloudy or cool weather, giving rise to their common name. The scientific name means "woman's hood" and refers to the hooded column present in most, but not all species. Most species are endemic to Australia although some are found as far from there as the Philippines and Indonesia. The type species, Thelymitra longifolia, the first to be formally described, was collected in New Zealand.
Thelymitras can be grown in a freely draining, dense mixture with partially composted organic matter. A suitable mixture is an equal mix of 7 mm road screenings, year old composted wood chips and commercial potting mix. It is good practice to cover the surface in pine or she-oak needles to control water loss and to feed the mycorrhizal fungi that support the orchid.
Due to the buds only opening in warm weather, it is common practice to induce flowering by using a bank of strong incandescent lights to simulate the warm sun. Some work has gone into growing hybrids for better growing and more colour.
There are about 100 species distributed in higher rainfall areas of Australia, 15 in New Zealand, 11 of which are endemic, one in New Caledonia, one in East Timor and one in Java and the Philippines. Australian species grow in a range of habitats from swamps to relatively dry sandplains. They are common around granite boulders where they benefit from runoff. The New Zealand species grow in boggy places and on clay banks and T. javanica grows on sparsely vegetated mountain slopes.
Abrupt Sun Orchid · Wyong sun orchid · Gumland sun orchid · Bleak sun orchid · White sun orchid · Kath's sun orchid · Alpins striped sun orchid · Mountain sun orchid · Long-leaved sun orchid · Rabbit-eared sun orchid · Cleopatra's needles · Forest sun orchid
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Thelymitra by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
