May 2014 Winning Photo

Pauline Meyer’s winning photograph is a whole plant picture of Western Australia’s flamboyant Queen of Sheba Orchid.  It was taken at Eneabba, north of Perth and identified by a local as Thelymitra variegata but in consulting the books it would appear that it is the Northern Queen of Sheba, T. pulcherrima.  There are three species known as Queen of Sheba orchids in Western Australia – T. varigata, T. pulcherrima and T. speciosa.

T. variegata was originally named in 1839 by John Lindley but under the genus Macdonaldia.  In 1865 Ferdinand Mueller moved it to Thelymitra, later people began to separate it out to three different species* but it wasn’t until 2009 that Jeff Jeanes describeds T. pulcherrima and T. speciosa as distinct species from T. variegata.

All three species have a single thin spiral leaf and showy multi-coloured flowers.

T. pulcherrima and T. speciosa differ from T. variegata in the following points.

• T. speciosa, begins flowering earlier, is a slightly shorter plant with fewer flowers (one, more rarely two) and although the flowers are a similar size to T. variegata they are even more colourful and the petals and sepals are distinctly different colours.
• T pucherrima is similar in height to T. variegata but has smaller flowers with yellow, red, purple mauve sepals and pink purple mauve petals.  It too begins flowering earlier than T. variegata.

They all have distinct separate locations as reflected in the common names – Southern Queen of Sheba (T. variegata), Eastern Queen of Sheba (T. speciosa) and Northern Queen of Sheba (T. pulcherrima).  For some good images go to Retired Aussies or the Chookman

 

Finally there is one other species that is similar to these three and it is called Cleopatra’s Needle, T. apiculata.

 

	Thelymitra pulcherrima	Theylmitra speciosa	Thelymitra variegata
	Northern Queen of Sheba	Eastern Queen of Sheba	Southern Queen of Sheba
Distribution	North of Perth between Lancelin and Dongara	Between the Stirling Range and Condingup	Between Perth & Albany with disjunct populations near Hyden
Flowering	late June – early September	late June – September	August to September
Flower numbers	1 to 5	1 to 2	1 to 5
Flower height	150 – 350	100 – 200 mm	100 – 350 mm
Flower size	25 – – 35mm	30 – 50 mm	30 – 50 mm
Sepals	Yellow, red, purple and mauve	Yellow, red, purple and mauve	Deep pink purple blotched
Petals	Pink or purple and mauve	Pink or purple and mauve	Deep pink or purple and darker purple blotched

 

References:

Field Guide to the Orchids of Western Australia 2013, pages 425 & 427

I would like to thank Andrew Brown, co-author, for his help with this article.

 

* The name T. puchemirra is mentioned in the Western Australian Native Orchid Study and Conservation Group 2008 field trip report