Prasophyllum australe
Prasophyllum australe, commonly known as southern leek orchid or austral leek orchid, is a species of orchid and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It has a single tubular, green leaf and up to fifty scented, greenish-brown flowers with red stripes.

Description
Prasophyllum australe is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and a single green, tube-shaped leaf up to  long and  in diameter near its reddish base. Up to fifty or more highly scented flowers are arranged along  of a thin flowering spike  high. The flowers are greenish-brown with white reddish stripes and are often sweetly fragrant. As with others in the genus, the flowers are inverted so that the labellum is above the column rather than below it. The ovary is  long and pressed against the flowering stem. The lateral sepals are about  long, joined for most of their length and form the uppermost part of the flower. The dorsal and lateral sepals and the petals are similar in size and shape, lance-shaped to egg-shaped,  long, but the lateral sepals are joined at their sides. The labellum is white, about  long and  wide, curves upwards and has a wavy margin. Flowering occurs from September to January and is more prolific after fire the previous summer.

Taxonomy and naming
Prasophyllum australe was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown and the description was published in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen. The specific epithet (australe) is a Latin word meaning "south".

Distribution and habitat
The southern leek orchid grows in swampy places in forest and heath in south-eastern Queensland, near-coastal New South Wales, southern Victoria, south-eastern South Australia and in Tasmania.

References

australe
Endemic orchids of Australia
Flora of Queensland
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Victoria (state)
Flora of Tasmania
Flora of South Australia
Plants described in 1810
Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)