Purple Donkey Orchid Australian Wildflower Earrings

Purple Donkey Orchid Earrings.

Made in Australia from our original hand painted design, these earrings are printed with eco-friendly inks, onto light weight sustainably grown hoop pine and finished with silver stainless steel hoops, perfect for sensitive ears!

Diuris punctata, the Purple Donkey orchid is a small, terrestrial orchid that grows in the fertile, lowland grasslands, open sclerophyll forests and heathlands of south-eastern Queensland, NSW, ACT and Victoria. It has 1-3 upright, grass-like green leaves about 25cm tall and from the centre of the leaf clump it produces a slender 50cm high flower spike that can carry up to 10 large, stunning flowers that are pale mauve to purple with darker purple blotches. A common, widespread orchid that can be found in extensive colonies in moist areas.

It survives the Summer as a dormant underground tuber, the leaf shoots emerge around March or April and it flowers from September to December. The flowers are pollinated by insects like small native bees and wither immediately. The seed pod matures around December and releases millions of microscopic seeds that require mycorrhizal fungi in the soil to germinate.

The Donkey Orchid's survival is threatened by competition from weeds, grazing, soil disturbance, trampling, vehicle traffic and illegal collection. It is considered vulnerable, listed as threatened and recent conservation measures in some key areas have begun to stabilise its numbers.