Genoplesium laminatum, commonly known as the red 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 twenty bright reddish flowers. It grows in heath and grassy forest in a few places on the South Coast and Central Tablelands.
Genoplesium laminatum 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 five and twenty bright reddish flowers are arranged along a flowering stem NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long. The flowers lean downwards slightly and are NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide. 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 about 3sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and 2sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide with hairless edges and darker coloured bands. The lateral sepals are NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long, about 1sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide, turn downwards, with a humped base and a sharply pointed tip. There is sometimes a small gland on the tip of the lateral sepals. The petals are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, about 1sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide with hairless edges. The labellum is oblong to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, about 2.5sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and 1sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide and fleshy. There is a broad, tapering callus in the centre of the labellum and extending nearly to its tip. Flowering occurs from January to May.[1]
The red midge orchid was first formally described in 1885 by Robert D. FitzGerald who gave it the name Prasophyllum laminatum and published the description in Journal of Botany, British and Foreign.[2] [3] In 2019, Matthew Renner changed the name to Genoplesium laminatum[4] [5] and the name is accepted by Plants of the World Online. The specific epithet (laminatum) is derived from the Latin word lamina meaning "a thin plate", "blade" or "sheet".[6]
Genoplesium laminatum grows in heathy or grassy forest between Jervis Bay and Bowral.