Glossodia

Glossodia, abbreviated as Gloss. in horticultural trade, are a small family of mostly purple orchids from Australia.

Distribution

Plants in this genus are distributed from Eastern Australia to SouthEastern Australia.

Description

Plants are terrestrial and are found in open forest, grasslands, and sand dunes. They are commonly found growing together in groups.

Culture

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.

Naming

The name is derived from the Greek word, glossodes (tongue-shaped) referring to the tongue-like appendage at the base of the column

Species

• Glossodia major R.Br., 1810.
• Glossodia minor R.Br., 1810.