Dipodium elegantulum, commonly known as the elegant hyacinth orchid, is a leafless orchid that is endemic to Queensland. In spring and summer it has up to sixty pale to dark pink flowers with a few darker spots and streaks near the tips, on a tall flowering stem.
Dipodium elegantulum is a tuberous, perennial, saprophytic herb. Between August and December it produces a flowering stem NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 tall bearing between twenty and sixty flowers. The flowers are pale to dark pink with a few darker spots and streaks near the tips and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. The dorsal sepal is linear to lance-shaped, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide and the lateral sepals are a similar shape but slightly longer and narrower. The petals are a similar shape but slightly curved, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, about 3sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1, free from each other and the sepals. The labellum is dark pink and projects forwards, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide with an upturned tip and a narrow central band of mauve hairs up to 0.5sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long.[1] [2]
Dipodium atropurpureum was first formally described in 1991 by David Jones and the description was published in Australian Orchid Research from a specimen collected near Mareeba. The specific epithet (elegantulum) is a Latin word meaning "very fine",[3] referring to the flowers of this orchid.
The elegant hyacinth orchid is widespread in forest and grassy woodland between the Mount Windsor Tableland, the Hervey Range and Charters Towers.