Genoplesium apostasioides, commonly known as the freak midge orchid, is a small terrestrial orchid endemic to New South Wales. It has a single thin leaf fused to the flowering stem and up to fifteen small, yellowish green flowers with a reddish labellum. The flowers do not open widely and are self-pollinating. It grows in heath and shallow moss gardens on rock ledges from the Blue Mountains to Nerriga.
Genoplesium apostasioides is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and a single thin leaf NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and fused to the flowering stem with the free part NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long. Between three and fifteen yellowish-green flowers are widely spaced along a flowering stem NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 tall and much taller than the leaf. The flowers are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and open erratically, or do not open at all and are self-pollinating. As with others in the genus, the flowers are inverted so that the labellum is above the column rather than below it. The dorsal sepal is lance-shaped to egg-shaped, about 5sigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and 2.5sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide with hairy edges. The lateral sepals are linear to lance-shaped, about 6.5sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, 2sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide, more or less parallel to each other and sometimes have a gland on the tip. The petals are lance-shaped to egg-shaped, about 4sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, 1.5sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide with hairy edges and a sharply pointed tip. The labellum is reddish, about 7.5sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, 2sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide, with hairy edges and a sharply pointed tip. There is a callus in the centre of the labellum and extending nearly to its tip. Flowering occurs from December to April.[1] [2]
The freak midge orchid was first formally described in 1888 by Robert D. FitzGerald who gave it the name Corunastylis apostasioides from a specimen collected near Berrima, and published the description in his book Australian Orchids.[3] In 1989, David Jones and Mark Alwin Clements changed the name to Genoplesium apostasioides.[4]
Genoplesium apostasioides grows in forest and in moss gardens on rock shelves, on the tablelands between the Blue Mountains and Nerriga.