Genoplesium morinum, commonly known as the mulberry midge orchid, is a species of small terrestrial orchid that is endemic to New South Wales. It has a single thin leaf fused to the flowering stem and up to twenty crowded, dark reddish purple flowers. It has been known as "mulberries on sticks".
Genoplesium morinum is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and a single thin, dark green leaf, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long with a purplish base and fused to the flowering stem with the free part NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long. The leaf sometimes remains attached to the tuber until the plant flowers in the next year. Between ten and twenty dark reddish purple flowers are crowded along NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 of a flowering stem reaching to a height of NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1. The flowers lean downwards, are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide and inverted so that the labellum is above the column rather than below it. The dorsal sepal is egg-shaped, about 6sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and 3sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide with dark red lines. The lateral sepals are linear to lance-shaped, NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide, point downwards and spread apart from each other. The petals are broadly egg-shaped, about 5.5sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and 2sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide with darker lines. The petals have irregular edges with coarse, purple hairs up to 0.5sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long. The labellum is dark purplish red, linear to elliptic in shape, about 4.5sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, 2sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide with purplish hairs up to 1sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 on its edges. There is a thick, fleshy, dark purplish black callus in the centre of the labellum and extending almost to its tip. Flowering occurs from November to January.[1] [2] [3]
Genoplesium morinum was first formally described in 1991 by David Jones from a specimen collected in the Kanangra-Boyd National Park and the description was published in The Orchadian.[4] In 2002, David Jones and Mark Clements changed the name to Corunastylis morina but the change is not accepted by the Australian Plant Census.[5] The specific epithet (morinum) is derived from the Latin word meaning "mulberry coloured", referring to the flower colour.
Prior to its formal description, William Nicholls noted the cattlemen knew this species as "mulberries on sticks".
Genoplesium morinum grows with sedges in swampy places at altitudes of about 1000sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 in the Kanangra-Boyd National Park.