About Drakaea glyptodon Fitzg.
Drakaea glyptodon, commonly known as king in his carriage, shares key traits with other species in its genus: it has a single ground-hugging leaf and an underground tuber. For this species specifically, the leaf is heart-shaped, roughly 10 millimetres (0.4 inches) in diameter, glabrous, dull blue-grey, and marked with darker lines that radiate from its attachment to the stem. The stem grows 10 to 35 centimetres (4 to 10 inches) long, and the stalk holding its single flower measures 8 to 15 millimetres (0.3 to 0.6 inches) long. Like all other hammer orchid flowers, the labellum of D. glyptodon resembles a flightless female thynnid wasp, but this species' labellum is shorter and more swollen than the labellum of other Drakaea species. This species is pollinated by the wasp Zaspilothynnus trilobatus. King in his carriage can be identified by its lack of a spine on the column. While Drakaea elastica and Drakaea concolor also lack a column spine, the three species can be distinguished by leaf traits: D. concolor has a glossy dark green leaf, D. elastica has a glossy light green leaf, and D. glyptodon has the dull blue-grey leaf described earlier. The sepal at the back of the flower is 8 to 10 millimetres (0.3 to 0.4 inches) long, the two side sepals are 7 to 9 millimetres (0.3 to 0.4 inches) long, and the petals are also 7 to 9 millimetres (0.3 to 0.4 inches) long. The insect-like labellum has a "head" that is about one-third the length of its "body", bears only a few hairs, and is covered in dark lumps. The remaining portion of the labellum, which represents the insect's female "body", is dark maroon, hairy on its upper two-thirds, and glabrous on its lower section. Flowers of this species appear from late August to late October. In terms of distribution and habitat, king in his carriage is found between the Eneabba district and Condingup, east of Esperance. It grows in sand or gravelly soils near swamps that fill during winter.
