Drakea

Drakaea, [drake-ee-er] named in honour of Miss Drake, a botanical artist.

orchid illustration 3

A West Australian genus of plants commonly called “Hammer Orchids,” owing to the curious hammer-like appearance and action of the lip, delicately poised on a slender, hinged, stem-like claw Flowers dull, dark reddish-purple and green, sepals and two petals narrow and inconspicuous. Leaf solitary at, or near, the base of stem.

Fitzgerald disagreed with many botanists regarding the sensitiveness of the lip of Drakaea assisting in the fertilisation of the species, except by attraction, and questioned its often asserted power of impelling an insect against the column.

Drakea Species in Western Australia

Drakea elastica, “PRAYING VIRGIN”; springy.
- see Orchid Illustration 3, no 5
Stem, 6 in. high or more, leaf heart-shaped, thick and fleshy, about ½ in. diameter. Flower, solitary. Sepals and petals linear, about ½ in. long, lateral sepals and petals reflexed; dorsal sepal longer and erect. Lip very elastic, top of the basal portion covered with short thick hairs or calli, lower lobe solid and fleshy, half as long as the upper part, upturned at tip. The lower section of the arm on which the lip is supported, is marked with dark and light bands. Favours sandy flats, often found near burnt logs associated with Caleana nigrita.
W.A.: Albany, Gosnells, Collie, Jarnadup, Kendenup, Maylands, Margaret River, Pinjarra, York. September – October.

Drakea Fitzgeraldii, honouring R. D. Fitzgerald.
The following translation from the German of Schlecter’s description (Fedde, XVII., 1921, pp.81) has been kindly supplied by Dr. R. S. Rogers: “This plant has been incorrectly identified with Drakea elastica, Lindley, from which it certainly differs specifically. The leaves are more roundly ovate, and not so distinctly reniform or circular; the stem is generally shorter. The lateral sepals and petals are not directed downwards, but curved forwards and backwards so that they cross one another. The labellum is furnished with warty growths to beyond the middle, and particularly in the middle and along the margins; anteriorly it is distinctly turned upwards with an emarginate apex; the posterior extension of the labellum, which in Drakea elastica is distinctly narrowed in the lower part, is in this species plainly elongate. Likewise the margins of column are more conspicuously widened than in Drakea elastica. This species is illustrated under the name of Drakea elastica by Fitzgerald in ‘Australian Orchids,’ Vol. II., Part I. (1884), plate 4.
W.A.: Locality: District of Perth, flowers September,

Drakea glyptodon, lip resembling a glyptodon.
A species somewhat like Drakea elastica, but differing in the proportions and surface of the lip, the longer lobe being very hairy except at its extreme tip which is smooth but not up turned, shorter lobe glandular but not hairy. The whole lip resembles in form (miniature, of course) the enormous extinct tortoise-monster, glyptodon, a creature as large as an ox and covered with tesselated scales. Favours moist sandy flats
W.A.: Boyup Brook, Collie, Margaret River, Pinjarra. October – September

Drakea Jeanensis, honouring Jean S. Rogers.
Somewhat similar to Drakea elastica and Drakea g1yptodon. Leaf emerald-green, radical, orbicular or heart-shaped, glabrous. Stem very slender. Flowers bright reddish-brown, longer lobe of lip quite smooth except for a few hairs at extreme base near insertion of claw, not glandular, not upturned at tip, shorter lobe very glandular and densely covered with branching hairs. (Described Transactions and Proceedings Royal Society, S.A., XLIV., 1920.) Often found associated with Drakea glyptodon.
W.A.: Maida Vale, Pinjarra. October.

Drakea

Drakea Species in Western Australia

West Australian Orchids Series

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