From the Latin brevi (short, abbreviated), in reference to the short labellum midlobe relative to the lateral lobes.

Short-nosed Donkey Orchid.

Leaves 2 or 3, 50–160 × 3–8 mm, folded. Flower stem 150–300 mm tall, 1–5-flowered. Flowers 20–25 mm across, yellow heavily marked with red to red-brown; petals yellow, dorsal sepal yellow suffused with brown, labellum lateral lobes yellow with brown or red-brown tips, midlobe mostly red or brown. Dorsal sepal erect, 6–8 × 6–9 mm. Lateral sepals deflexed, crossed and recurved, 11–16 × 1.5–2.5 mm. Petals obliquely erect; stalk 3–4 mm long, curved, blackish; blade elliptical, margins often wavy, 10–14 × 7–9 mm. Labellum 4–5 mm long; lateral lobes 5–6 × 3–4 mm; midlobe flattish, margins shallowly downcurved, narrowly wedge-shaped when flattened, 4–4.5 × 4–4.5 mm. Callus ridge 1, 3–4 mm long, yellow.

Early spring flowering; short plants; flowers up to 5 per raceme, 20–25 mm across, yellow heavily marked with red to red-brown; lateral sepals to 16 mm long; lateral lobes longer than midlobe; midlobe short; 1 callus ridge.

Flowers August–early September.

Native.

W.A. (Kenwick); 5–30 m altitude.

Currently known from a single locality, where it grows among sedges and low shrubs in moist to wet, black, peaty soil and sandy clay around the margins of a swamp.

Flowers freely without fire.

Endangered (Jones 2021).

Named in 2016 based on specimens collected by David Jones and Chris French in 1997 from Kenwick Swamp SE of Perth, W.A.

D.L. Jones, A Complete Guide to Native Orchids of Australia 3rd edn: 248–249 (2021).

Jones, D.L. (2021). A Complete Guide to Native Orchids of Australia 3rd edn. (Reed New Holland: Sydney).

Published 10 June 2022. This profile has been adapted from A Complete Guide to Native Orchids of Australia 3rd edn (2021) by D.L. Jones, with support from the Australian Orchid Foundation.