Thrixspermum platystachys, commonly known as the starry hairseed,[1] is an epiphytic or lithophytic orchid that forms untidy clumps with many tangled, wiry roots, up to ten stiff, leathery leaves and many star-shaped, cream-coloured flowers with an orange and white labellum. This orchid occurs from Papuasia to northern Queensland.
Thrixspermum platystachys is an epiphytic or lithophytic herb that forms untidy, pendulous clumps with many thin wiry roots and flattened stems NaNmm long. It has between five and ten stiff, leathery leaves NaNmm long and NaNmm wide in two ranks. The flowers are fragrant, star-shaped, cream-coloured, NaNmm long and NaNmm wide arranged on a flattened, wiry flowering stem NaNmm long. The sepals are NaNmm long and about 3mm wide, the petals shorter and narrower. The labellum is orange and white, about 15mm long and 9mm wide with three lobes. The side lobes are about erect, about 3mm long and 6mm wide and the middle lobe is short and fleshy with a spur about 4mm long. Flowering occurs sporadically.[2] [3]
The starry hairseed was first formally described in 1886 by Frederick Bailey who gave it the name Sarcochilus platystachys and published the description in a supplement to A Synopsis of the Queensland Flora from a specimen collected by Thomas Bancroft near the Johnstone River.[4] [5] [6] In 1911, Rudolf Schlechter changed the name to Thrixspermum platystachys.[7] The specific epithet (platystachys) is derived from the ancient Greek words meaning "broad" or "flat and meaning "ear of grain".[8]
Thrixspermum platystachys grows on rainforest trees and on single trees near the coast in exposed situations. It occurs in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Bismarck Archipelago and in Queensland on the Cape York Peninsula and as far south as Townsville.