Common Name: Sun Orchid Family name: Orchidaceae Botanical name: Thelymitra spp. Flowering/fruiting season: Flowers in spring Location: Dry sclerophyll forests or woodland at low, intermediate and high altitudes (Burbidge & Gray, 1976:128-9)

Use:

• Food
• Tuber eaten, year round resource (Wreck Bay Community & Renwick, 2000:29)

Notes:

• 5 species in ACT
• Root tubers are paired; available all year (Gott, 1995)
• 'The pink orchids with maroon spots [dotted sun orchids] are "storm flowers". We weren't allowed to pick them, because if you did they'd bring a storm - Elaine Sturgeon' (Wreck Bay Community & Renwick, 2000:29)
• T. nuda has purple flowers.
• 'Sun orchids have symmetrical petals so they look more like lilies than orchids … sending up their scented six-lobed blooms on one or two flowering stalks. The paired Sun-Orchid tubers have a high concentration of starch.' (Zola & Gott, 1992:46)

Language names:

Horticulture :
See Orchids

Similar species:

• T. nuda Plain Sun Orchid
• T. ixiodes Spotted Sun Orchid
• T. carnea Pink Sun Orchid
• T. venosa Veined Sun Orchid

Use code:
ROOT

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