Tridactyle bicaudata flower

The inflorescence of Tridactyle bicaudata is a double-row spike of 12 to 16 waxy flowers all facing the same way (secund). About six flower stems may emerge from among the lower leaves per season, each spike becoming up to 8 cm long.

The small flower is about 12 mm in diameter. Flower colour is yellowish cream or pale beige. Both the sepals and lateral petals are oblong and curved, fairly similar to each other.

The flat, thin lip is three-lobed, the side-lobes fringed at their tips. Tridactyle (from Greek) means three-fingered, referring to the lip lobes, bicaudata (from Latin) meaning two-tailed, referring to the side-lobes of the lip. There is a brown or green spur of 1 cm to 1.8 cm that grows from the back of the lip.

The flowers are vanilla-scented. Flowering happens from mid-spring to mid-autumn. It is thought that the plants are moth-pollinated (Pooley, 1998; www.orchidspecies.com).