Calochilus caeruleus L.O.Williams, Bot. Mus. Leafl. 12 (1946) 151, pl. 22, 1-7
Type: Brass 8600 (holo AMES 61165; iso BO, L)
Slender, terrestrial, leafless or nearly leafless herb, up to 70 cm tall, from an ovoid tuber. Stem up to 0.3 cm diam., straight, with about three short, bract-like leaves or scales. The cauline leaves or scales 1-4 cm. long, sheathing, acute or acuminate, scarious or subscarious. Inflorescence a lax few-flowered raceme. Floral bracts up to 1 cm. long, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate. Median sepal 0.7 cm by 0.6 cm when flattened, suborbicular-ovate, acute, strongly cucullate. Lateral sepals 0.7 by 0.4 cm, ovate, acute, slightly oblique, connate for a short distance at the base. Petals 0.6 by 0.3 cm, oblong, somewhat arcuate, obtuse, minutely verrucose dorsally. Lip 1.4 cm long, 0.8 cm wide near the apex, obovate-cuneate, gradually narrowed to the base, the margins in the basal part fimbriate; the disc on the basal two thirds densely covered with elongated, acute, finger-like appendages and with two inconspicuous parallel, sublamellate calli at the base, the apical third glabrous or nearly so. Column about 0.4 cm long, auriculate winged at the base. Anther about 0.25 cm long. (After Williams, 1946).
Colours: Stems green. Flowers green, densely mottled and shaded with red, beard of the lip a deep metallic blue at the base, apical two thirds maroon-red.
Habitat: Terrestrial in seasonally wet places in savanna woodland.
Flowering time in the wild: January.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea), Australia.
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea. See map: 108-3M.JPG
Cultivation: Warm growing terrestrial, requires light position and a dry resting season.