Diuris pallescens, commonly known as pale donkey orchid, is a species of orchid that is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has two or three linear to lance-shaped leaves and up to seven pale yellow flowers with light brown to reddish-brown markings.
Diuris pallescens is a tuberous, perennial herb with two or three linear to lance-shaped leaves long and wide. Up to seven pale yellow flowers with light brown to reddish-brown markings, long and wide are borne on a flowering stem tall. The dorsal sepal is egg-shaped, long and wide, the lateral sepals narrowly oblong, down-turned and crossed, long and wide. The petals are broadly elliptic to more or less round, long and wide on a stalk long. The labellum is long with three lobes - the centre lobe wedge-shaped, long and wide, the side lobes spread widely apart and oblong, long and wide. There is a single smooth, yellow callus ridge long, along the mid-line of the labellum. Flowering occurs from late August to mid-September.[1] [2]
Diuris pallescens was first formally described in 2016 by David Jones and Christopher J. French in Australian Orchid Review, from a specimen collected by French in the Caron Nature Reserve near Perenjori in 2005.[3] The specific epithet (pallescens) means "pale", "wan" or "becoming paler", referring to the colour of the flowers.[4]
Pale donkey orchid grows in low, heathy shrubland, often near granite outcrops, mainly in the area between Three Springs, Coorow and Dalwallinu in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Geraldton Sandplains and Mallee bioregions of south-western Western Australia.
Diuris pallescens is listed as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.