Schistotylus
Introduction '''''Schistotylus purpuratus''''', commonly known as '''purple sprites''', is the only species in the genus '''''Schistotylus''''' from the orchid family, Orchidaceae. It is a small epiphytic orchid with up to six crowded, linear leaves and up to ten cup-shaped, pale green flowers with purple marking and a mostly white labellum. It grows in rainforest and swampy heath in eastern Australia.
Description ''Schistotylus purpuratus'' is a small epiphytic herb, usually with only a single growth. The stems are  long with between two and six crowded, linear to narrow elliptic leaves  long and  wide. Between four and ten fragrant, cup-shaped, pale green flowers with purple blotches,  long and  wide are borne on a thin, arching flowering stem  long. The sepals are about  long and  wide, the petals are slightly shorter and narrower. The labellum is white with yellow markings, about  long and  wide with three lobes. The side lobes have a beak-like front and the middle lobe is short and thickened with a spur  long. Flowering occurs from August to October.
Taxonomy and naming Purple sprites was first formally described in 1938 by Herman Rupp who originally gave it the name ''Cleisostoma gemmatum'' and published the description in ''The Victorian Naturalist''. That name was, however a nomen illegitimum because it had been used for a different species, and Rupp changed in the name to ''Cleisostoma purpuratum'' in a later edition of the same journal. In 1941, Rupp changed the name again to ''Schistotylus purpuratus''. The specific epithet (''purpuratus'') is derived from the Latin word ''purpura'' meaning "a purple dye", referring to "the striking reddish purple suffusion of the column.
Distribution and habitat ''Schistotylus purpuratus'' grows on shrubs and the twigs of trees in forest, heath and scrub. It is found between Nerang in Queensland and the Carrai National Park in New South Wales.
See also * List of Orchidaceae genera
References