Scientific Name: Lyperanthus suaveolens
Common Name: brown beaks
Family Classification (Clade): Monocots
Family: Orchidaceae
Form Description: Erect linear-lanceolate, greyish-green leaf; stout dark scape.
Height (m): 0.3 – 0.45
Flowers: Strongly perfumed and 2-8 red-brown flowers that have widely spreading sepals and petals, a hooded dorsal sepal and a prominent yellow tipped labellum.
Fruit: Papery capsule
Municipality
Plant Communities
Habitat Notes
Heathy and sedgy open eucalypt forest and woodland, sedgeland, heathland and grassland on poorly drained to well-drained sandy and peaty soils, often in dense vegetation. Locally fairly common in coastal and near coastal lowland areas from north-eastern to south-eastern Tas. However it also occurs on Hunter Is.
Site Tolerance
Exposed, Moist, Shady, Waterlogged
Soil Tolerance
Nutrient-poor, Poorly-drained, Sandy, Well-drained
Frost Tolerance
Tender
General Notes
Flowering is not stimulated by fires.
Propagation Calendar
-
Flowering Month
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec -
Seed Collecting Month
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec -
Sowing Month
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec -
Cutting Month
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Propagation Method
Seed Information
Seed Treatment Notes
Orchid seeds are very minute yellow, brown or blackish dust-like particles. Orchid seeds are produced within a capsule that splits at maturity and releases thousands to millions of seeds. Dispersed by wind and water and only germinate following infection of the embryo by a suitable mycorrhizal fungus. Very few seeds become mature plants. For more information see Jones, Wapstra, Tonelli, Harris (1999): The Orchids of Tasmania.