[ kor-ee-san-thees]
From korys, a helmet, and anthos, a flower.
Dwarf plants with a single heart-shaped leaf, frosted in appearance below. Flowers large in proportion to size of plants, solitary, somewhat trumpet-mouthed. The lip is curiously fringed with bristle-like auricles or spurs which no doubt assist in snaring insects, for fertilisation purposes, that may visit the flower in search of honey. Fitzgerald has recorded that "the various species are capable of self-fertilisation aided by insects, but seed is seldom produced and the plants multiply by their roots and bulbs apparently. Individual plants, though several inches apart, are often united, but only one plant so joined is ever found in flower, and the connection probably lasts only one season." The genus is extensive, ranging from the Philippines, the Himalayas, through the islands to Papua, Polynesia, New Zealand and Australia. There are five Australian species.

C. pruinosa, Cunningham; frosty.
A tiny plant, rarely 2 in. high, including the flower. Leaf heart-shaped, 1 in. in diameter. Flower reddish-purple. Lip erect against the upper sepal, nearly ½in. long. The stalk grows from 1.5 in. to 6 in. after the formation of a seed-capsule, perhaps for the better distribution of the seed. If not fertilised, the flower perishes on the leaf.
W.A.: Big Brook. Albany District. June - August.
A specimen of Corysanthes was found in June, 1921, at Big Brook, near Pemberton, in the "karri" country, growing on the trunk of "Blackboy" (Xanthorrhoea Preissii). It puzzled the finder, who thought it might be an epiphyte and sent it to Mr. W. Catton Grasby for identification. The collection of Corysanthes has been but seldom recorded in Western Australia, and this "find" was considered of particular interest, reproduction from seed being proved, undoubtedly, because of the situation. C. fimbriata, R. Brown, and C. pruinosa, Cunningham are doubtfully distinct species, and frequently grow intermingled in the Eastern States, where they are found occasionally growing in abundance on the trunks of tree ferns. They flower in winter and early spring. A description of C. fimbriata, R. Brown, is appended: Plant small, leaf round, cordate, pointed. Flower reddish-purple, almost sessile. Dorsal sepal erect, then incurved, gradually contracted to a claw, lamina forming a hood over and beyond the lip. Lateral sepals colourless, linear, connate at their bases with each other and with the petals. Petals somewhat wider and shorter, colourless, often bidentate. Lip large, sessile, deep crimson, lower half vertical against the dorsal sepal, enclosing the column in a split tube; upper part acutely recurved, expanding into an orifice with denticulate margins and directed forward. Tube at base dilated at each side of attachment into a wide auricle. Column short, not winged. The orifice of the lip of C. pruinosa is not fimbriate, or scarcely so, usually having entire incurved margins.