Stylidium graminifolium flowerhead1 - Flickr - Macleay Grass Man

Description :

Description: Native, cool season, perennial herb usually 30–40 cm tall, but up to 70 cm. Leaves are erect grass-like, basally tufted, linear and 5–25 cm long. Flowerheads are racemes up to half the length of the scape. Flowers are shortly pedicellate, 5–10 mm long and pale to bright pink; the labellum is narrowed to a rounded point at apex; the column is reflexed behind the petals and is stimulated by an insect alighting on the flower, which causes the column to spring over and descend with a hammer-like action to spread pollen on the insect or, when the stigma is receptive, to receive pollen from the other plants red; anthers and ovaries are glandular. Flowering is from late spring to mid-summer. Most common in dry sclerophyll forests with nutrient-poor soils. Date: 12 September 2008, 09:51. Source: Stylidium graminifolium flowerhead1. Author: Harry Rose from Dungog, Australia.