Prasophyllum pictum is a species of orchid endemic to New South Wales. It has a single tubular, shiny dark green leaf and up to twenty two scented brown, pink, purple and white flowers. It is only known from three subpopulations on the Northern Tablelands.
Prasophyllum pictum is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and a single shiny, dark green, tube-shaped leaf, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide with a purplish base. Between about nine and twenty two flowers are crowded along a flowering spike NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, reaching to a height of up to 350sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1. The flowers are sweetly scented and are white with brown, pink and purple tones. 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 broadly egg-shaped to lance-shaped, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide and has three to five darker veins and a pointed tip. The lateral sepals are linear to lance-shaped, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, about 2sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide and joined to each other, at least when the flower first opens. The petals are white with a pink to red central area, linear, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and about 2sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. The labellum is white, oblong to lance-shaped, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, about 4sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide and turns sharply upwards through more than 90°. There is an egg-shaped to wedge-shaped yellow callus with a dark green base in the centre of the labellum and extending well past the bend. Flowering occurs between late November and late December.[1]
Prasophyllum pictum was first formally described in 2018 by David Jones and Lachlan Copeland from a specimen collected near Ebor and the description was published in Australian Orchid Review.[2] The specific epithet (pictum) is derived from the Latin word pictus meaning "painted" or "colored",[3] referring to the colourful flowers of this leek orchid.
This leek orchid grows in grassland and grassy woodland at altitudes of about 1300sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1. It is only known from three subpopulations containing a total of about 200 plants near Ebor.