Plantae > Tracheophyta > Liliopsida > Asparagales > Orchidaceae > Gastrodia > Gastrodia sesamoides

Gastrodia sesamoides (Potato Orchid)

Wikipedia Abstract

Gastrodia sesamoides is a saprophyte in the Orchid family. Common names include Potato Orchid, Native Potato, Bell Orchid and Cinnamon Bells. The Potato Orchid is found in Australia and New Zealand. This leafless plant occurs in a variety of habitats; often growing in leaf litter in high rainfall areas. Indigenous Australians have been known to eat the tubers, hence the potato reference in the common name. Aboriginal peoples located the plants in habitat by observing where bandicoots had scratched in search of the tubers after detecting the plants underground by scent. The flavour of the tuber is said to resemble that of the beetroot, though insipid and watery. Within the tubers are beneficial bacteria and fungi. The fungal filaments supply soil nutrients to the plant and the root bacteria
View Wikipedia Record: Gastrodia sesamoides

Attributes

Edible [1]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [1]  Hermaphrodite
Lifespan [1]  Perennial
Structure [2]  Herb
Height [1]  24 inches (0.6 m)
View Plants For A Future Record : Gastrodia sesamoides

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Flinders Chase National Park II 81245 South Australia, Australia
Grampians National Park II 416373 Victoria, Australia
Kosciuszko National Park II 1705480 New South Wales, Australia

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
2Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0