| Glossodia | |
|---|---|
| Waxlip orchid, Glossodia major | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Monocots |
| Order: | Asparagales |
| Family: | Orchidaceae |
| Subfamily: | Orchidoideae |
| Genus: | Glossodia R.Br. |
Glossodia is a genus of mostly purple orchids from Australia. In spring vast numbers of Glossodia major flower on uncleared land.
There are only two recognised species:[2]
Glossodia are hard to maintain in cultivation, growing from seed in-vitro has yielded very poor results, and plants rescued from land clearing usually last only a few years. This is most likely due to the complete reliance on a symbiotic fungus for food. The orchid forms no roots and gets all its food from interacting with mycorrhizal fungus through its 'collar'. A reasonably successful solution to this is to grow new plants in the same pot from the produced seed each year. This usually requires hand pollination but can lead to a reasonably large collection of plants over many years.