Orchids are blooming in the Botanic Gardens' Tropical Shade Garden
The Swamp Orchid is Blooming now! View this spectacular flower today because It won't last long!
Look up during your walk and see the Golden Orchids Dendrobium discolour too.
Phaius australis - Swamp Orchid is blooming this month in the Tropical Shade Garden at the Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens.
It's national conservation status is Endangered (in the wild).
This orchid has flower stems up to 2m tall and large broad leaves with a pleated appearance, both arising from a fleshy bulb near ground level.
The large, showy flowers, with up to 20 per stem, have four petals which are white on the outside and brown with white or yellow veins on the inside. The central tongue of the flower is pink and yellow with lobes slightly curved inwards.
It grows in the wild in swampy grassland or swampy forest including rainforest, eucalypt or paper bark forest, mostly in coastal areas.
Threats to its continued growth in 'the wild' are…
- Illegal collection for horticulture or cut flowers. This showy species is highly sought after.
- Clearing and fragmentation of habitat for development, agriculture and roadworks.
- Drainage of swamps, or pollution from nutrient run-off.
- Frequent fire
- Grazing and trampling by domestic stock and feral pigs.
- Invasion of habitat by introduced weeds.
For more information Contact the Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens on 4952 7300 or email botanic@mackay.qld.gov.au.
Why not look at other plants which are blooming in the Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens under the tab Education and Discovery / What's flowering now?
Image is Phaius australis - Swamp Orchid.
Contact: Maya Harrison
Phone: 49527300
Email: