Satyrium neglectum inflorescence

The annual flower stem of Satyrium neglectum reaches heights ranging between 20 cm and 80 cm. Flowers appear around midsummer to early autumn.

The triangular bract below each flower ovary is reflexed or folded down. It has faint purple margins and glistening surface cells. The bracts and flowers form a neat, but busy pattern of contrasting shapes and colours, enhancing the allure of the inflorescence.

A few of the pale brown lip spurs, mostly hidden behind the flowers, are visible lower down in the spike. In some satyriums, including this one, the lip spurs are longer than the ovaries.

Many orchids are resupinate, i.e. the lip is twisted around during the bud phase and presented below; even the spurs on some flowers grow from the median sepal that forms the hood at the top of the flower, not from the lip. But Satyriums have two spurs emerging from the lip (median petal or dorsal tepal) at the top of the flower, while the median sepal is below (Liltved and Johnson, 2012; Manning, 2009).