Prasophyllum tortilis is a species of orchid endemic to South Australia. It has a single tube-shaped leaf and up to ten purplish-brown and green flowers with a purple labellum. It is a recently described plant, previously included with P. fitzgeraldii, but distinguished from that species by its smaller number of smaller, more darkly coloured, short-lived flowers. It also resembles P. goldsackii but has fleshier flowers than that species.
Prasophyllum tortilis is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and a single tube-shaped, dark green leaf which is NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide but narrower at its purplish base. Between four and ten purplish-brown and green flowers are well-spaced along a flowering spike NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long. The flowers are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 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 lance-shaped to egg-shaped, NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide and greenish with a brown stripe along its centre. The lateral sepals are oblong to lance-shaped, dark purple, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide, joined and twisted together. The petals are purplish with whitish edges, linear to oblong, NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. The labellum is purple, oblong to egg-shaped, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, about 3sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide and curves upward about half-way along with the tip just reaching between the lateral sepals. The edges of the upturned part are wavy or crinkled with short, hair-like papillae. There is a raised, greenish-yellow callus in the centre of the labellum and extending almost to its tip. Flowering occurs from late September to mid-October.[1]
Prasophyllum tortilis was first formally described in 2017 by David Jones and Robert Bates and the description was published in Australian Orchid Review from a specimen collected in the Wanilla Conservation Park.[2] The specific epithet (tortilis) is a Latin word meaning "twisted",[3] referring to the fleshy texture of this orchid.
This leek orchid mostly grows in hilly woodland between the Eyre Peninsula and southern Mount Lofty Ranges