drakea

Illustration of fourteen West Australian orchids, by Emily Pelloe.

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

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.  ... Read more