Diuris systena, commonly known as New England golden moths,[1] is a species of orchid that is endemic to the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales. It has two or three grass-like, narrowly linear leaves and up to four lemon yellow and brownish-green flowers.
Diuris systena is a tuberous, perennial herb with two or three grass-like, linear leaves long and wide. Up to four lemon yellow flowers long are borne on a green flowering stem high. The dorsal sepal is egg-shaped, long, wide with a greenish-brown base and few faint stripes. The lateral sepals are brownish-green, sword-shaped and parallel to each other, long and wide. The petal blades are narrowly egg-shaped to narrowly elliptic, long and wide on a stalk long. The labellum is long with three lobes - the centre lobe egg-shaped, long and wide, the side lobes erect, linear to narrowly oblong, long and wide. The labellum callus consists of a central ridge with two hairy side ridges. Flowering occurs from late September to early November.[2]
Diuris systena was first formally described in 2012 by David Jones and Lachlan Copeland in The Orchadian, from a specimen collected by Copeland near Ebor in 2006.[3] The specific epithet (systena) means "tapering to a point", referring to the tip of the labellum mid-lobe.
New England golden moths mostly grows around the edges of swamps and in soils derived from basalt near Ebor and from granite in the Cathedral Rock National Park on the Northern Tablelands of northern Ne South Wales.