About Dipodium pardalinum D.L.Jones
Dipodium pardalinum D.L.Jones is dormant for most of the year, with no above-ground growth present. The plant stores its growth as fleshy roots underground. In its native range, 40 to 90 cm tall flower spikes emerge between December and March each year. These racemose inflorescences bear 10 to 40 fleshy flowers that range from white to pale pink, marked with dark red spots or blotches. The flower tepals are strongly recurved, and its three-lobed labellum has a line of white hairs. This species is distributed in western Victoria and south-eastern South Australia, where it grows in open forest with an understorey of bracken or shrubs. Like all species in the Dipodium genus, Dipodium pardalinum is pollinated by native bees and wasps. No leafless Dipodium species, including this one, can be maintained in cultivation, because growers cannot replicate the plant’s required association with mycorrhizal fungi in horticultural settings.
