Corybas hypogaeus

Detailed description

Diminutive, terrestrial, fleshy, late winter to early spring flowering perennial forming extensive colonies through vegetative extension. Plants buried within leaf-litter usually only with the leaf exposed. Leaf solitary, held well above flower, much veined, veins largely anastomosing with longitudinal dots in the interspaces; distinctly petiolate, petiole 10–15 mm long, white often pinkish, with a sheathing truncate bract at base; lamina membranous, shining, 11.5–18.4 mm diameter, light green above, midrib and marginal spots purple; silvery to purple-silvery below; cordate-reniform to weakly pandurate, trilobed at apex, middle lobe prolonged, acute, acuminate, side margins sinuate with a single notch on both sides near the sub-hastate base, auricles large, distant, blunt-ended. Peduncle short, 2.3–4.6 mm long, hyaline, white or pinkish opaque. Floral bracts two, unequal, set close to base of flower, smaller bract to the front of the peduncle, minute, linear, obtuse; the larger bract set to the back to the peduncle, ovate-oblong, obtuse. Flower solitary, 6.9–9.2 mm diameter. Dorsal sepal sub-obovate-spathulate, narrowest at base, rounded and slightly sinuate or subapiculate at apex rather finely veined, arching and closely clasping, green with a purple median line. Lateral sepals up to 15 mm long, hyaline or pinkish opaque, linear, acuminate, very narrow-filiform. Petals up to 9.2 mm long, hyaline or pinkish opaque, filiform, 9.2 mm long. Labellum short, auriculate at base, apex abruptly flared with rounded and incurved margins, basal portion bearing 2–3 deeply cut laciniae, otherwise deeply and jaggedly cut. Fruit narrowly ovoid to ellipsoid borne on greatly elongated peduncle arising well above leaf litter.