Wingecarribee Leek Orchid - profile

Scientific name: Prasophyllum uroglossum 
 Conservation status in NSW: Endangered
National conservation status: Endangered

Description

The Wingecarribee Leek Orchid is a relatively inconspicuous ground orchid, with single clustered spikes of small flowers that are upside down relative to most other orchids. It has a single tubular, not flat, leaf. It grows to almost 50 cm tall; the leaf may be 40 cm long. The flowers are brown, purple-red and green with a strong sweet scent, said to resemble gardenia. The flower-spike consists of less than 20 well-spaced flowers.

Location and habitat

Distribution
 Wingecarribee Leek Orchid is known only from Wingecarribee Swamp in the Southern Highlands.

• Grows in boggy heath dominated by tea-tree (Leptospermum spp.) and rushes.
• Flowers are followed by a fleshy seed capsule.
• Plants retreat into subterranean tubers after fruiting, so are not visible above-ground.

Regional information
This species is found in the following catchment management authority regions. Click on a region name to see more details about the distribution, vegetation types and habitat preference of the species in that region.

• Hawkesbury/Nepean

Threats

• Inherent risk of loss of small populations from natural or un-natural catastrophic events.
• Loss and degradation of habitat and/or populations to agriculture, mining, and urban development.
• Loss and degradation of habitat and/or populations by modification of natural swamplands through changes in natural water flow regimes.
• Loss and degradation of habitat and/or populations by decreasing water quality of swamplands through pollution and siltation.

Recovery strategies

Priority actions are the specific, practical things that must be done to recover a threatened species, population or ecological community. The Department of Environment and Conservation has identified 14 priority actions to help recover the Wingecarribee Leek Orchid in New South Wales.

What needs to be done to recover this species?

• Retain and do not disturb all vegetation within 200m of swamps supporting the species.
• Retain or re-introduce ecologically sustainable water flows to swampland habitat.
• Ensure run-off into sites is controlled.
• Fence known sites and allow them to remain, or encourage them to return to a condition resembling the natural state of the vegetation.

References

• Backhouse G. and Jeanes J. (1995). The Orchids of Victoria. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
• Bishop T. (2000). Field Guide to the Orchids of New South Wales and Victoria. New South Wales University Press, Sydney.
• Harden G.J. (ed.) (1993). Flora of New South Wales Vol. 4. UNSW Press, Kensington, NSW.
• Walsh N.G. and Entwisle T.J. (1994). Flora of Victoria; Volume 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons. Inkata Press, Melbourne.