Corybas pruinosus
Plant: Small, 3 - 7 cm high terrestrial.
Tuber: ovoid-globose or ellipsoid, 3 - 5 mm across.
Stem: 25 - 54 mm high, 3-winged, glabrous.
Cataphyll: tubular, 5 - 8 mm long, acute, 1-nerved, glabrous.
Leaves: green on both sides, ovate-cordate or suborbicular, often 3- or 5-lobed, 20 - 30 by 20 - 33 mm, obtuse or retuse, sometimes obtusely apiculate, base cordate, cuneate at very base, margin wrinkled, midrib slightly impressed above, subprominent below in basal part only, basal nerves 4 or 5 on either side of midrib, only the middle one reaching apical part of limb. the others looping towards that nerve, branched, suprabasal nerves 1 or 2 on either side of midrib, branched, connate to middle basal nerve; pellucid lenticels none.
Pedicel: 1.5 - 2 mm long, glabrous.
Bract: narrowly ovate, 5.5 - 6 mm long, acute, glabrous.
Ovary: obliquely falcate-cylindric, trigonous, 4 - 5 mm long, 6-ribbed, glabrous.
Flower: purple with translucent patches, median sepal greyish green with darker spots, lip with a boss pale green , the latter sometimes with a dusky red spot, rarely entire flower white.
Median sepal: narrowly spathulate, cucullate, 16 - 20 by 14 - 17 mm, obtuse or retuse, 3-nerved at base, 11 - 13-nerved on hood, glabrous.
Lateral sepals: linear, 9 - 22 mm long, acute, sometimes bifid at tip, 1-nerved, glabrous.
Lateral petals: similar to sepals but only 1 - 4 mm long.
Lip: from a broad, infundibuliform, 8-10 by 3.5 - 5 mm large basal part abruptly curved downward and spreading into an obovate-orbicular limb, 10 - 14 by 10 - 14 mm large, margins spreading, coarsely dentate-fimbriate, 5-nerved at base, 25 - 28-nerved near margin, on inside with hispid papillae between boss and tip of limb
Boss: orbicular, 4 - 6 mm across, glabrous; pale green , sometimes with a dusky red spot
Auricles: small, slitlike.
Capsule: ellipsoid, 6-10 mm long, 6-grooved, pedicel elongating up to 30 mm in fruit.
Type: Cunningham s.n. (K).
Distribution: New South Wales, Tuggerah (Whitehead s.n.); 7 Mile Beach (Whitehead s.n.); Paterson (Rupp s.n.); Alum Mountains, Bulahdelah (Rupp s.n.); Port Philip (von Mueller s.n.).
Ecology: In scrubs from coast to tablelands