Plant Wiki

The open plant encyclopedia

Know any plant.
Grow it well.

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.

  • 13,000+plants with full pages
  • 365,000+plant species worldwide
  • 220+countries covered

Common in

See all

The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.

What do you want to do?

Popular plants

Browse all plants

See them in 3D

All plants in 3D

Browse plants

Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.

Plant Wiki › Browse plants

Broad sun orchid

Thelymitra imbricata

Broad sun orchid
Photo: Unknown author, CC0

Thelymitra imbricata, the broad sun orchid, is a tuberous terrestrial orchid native to Tasmania, with a single channelled leaf and up to fifteen or more blue flowers that open on warm sunny days from late spring. It is a wild native rather than a common garden plant, so care is best matched to its open forest and heath habitat.

Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Orchid
Light
Full sun
Water
Keep the soil moist during active growth in spring, then let it dry out while the tuber is dormant in summer.
Soil
Sandy or gritty, well-drained, acidic soil with added leaf mould or peat.
Temperature
5–25 °C; tolerates cool winters and frost in its native Tasmanian climate.
How easy
Hard
Native range
N. & E. Tasmania
Climate
temperate

About

Thelymitra imbricata, commonly called the broad sun orchid, is a species of orchid that is endemic to Tasmania. It has a single erect, channelled leaf and up to fifteen or more pale to dark or purplish blue, relatively large flowers.

Where it grows

The broad sun orchid usually grows in a range of habitats including open forest, scrubland, grassland and heath in the Tasmanian midlands.

Other Thelymitra plants

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 imbricata 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.

Credits & terms

Identify a plant

Point at a leaf or flower and snap. One plant in frame works best.

Your photo
Starting camera…