Diuris cruenta, commonly known as Kemerton donkey orchid, is a species of orchid that is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has two or three linear leaves and a flowering stem with up to seven pale yellow and reddish-brown flowers, and is similar to D. tinctoria.
Diuris cruenta is a tuberous, perennial herb, usually growing to a height of with two or three linear leaves long and wide. There are up to seven pale yellow to yellow flowers with red to reddish-brown markings, the flowers long and wide on pedicels long. The flowers have widely-spreading, ear-like, elliptic to broadly elliptic petals long, an egg-shaped dorsal sepal long and wide, and narrowly oblong lateral sepals long and crossed. The labellum has three lobes, the lateral ones long and wide, and the middle lobe broadly wedge-shaped with down-curved edges and a yellow callus. Flowering occurs from late August to October.[1] [2] This donkey orchid is similar to D. tinctoria, but is shorter and has less colourful flowers than that species.
Diuris cruenta was first formally described in 2016 by David Jones and Christopher French in Australian Orchid Review from specimens they collected in the Kemerton Industrial Plant in 1995.[3] The specific epithet (cruenta) means "stained or spotted with blood ", referring to the colouration of the flowers.
Kemerton donkey orchid grows in Banksia woodland in sand in coastal areas from near Lake Clifton to Capel in the Swan Coastal Plain bioregion of south-western Western Australia.
Diuris cruenta is listed as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.