Family: Orchidaceae
Pterostylis tenuissima
Citation:
Nicholls, Victorian Nat. 67:46 (1950).
Synonymy: Diplodium tenuissimum Common name: Swamp green-hood.
Description:
Slender glabrous plant, 5-28 cm high; no rosulate leaves at the time of flowering; stem bracts 5-7, alternate and widely spaced; the upper ones leaf-like and broadly lanceolate, stem-clasping at the base, 1-3 cm long; the lower ones small and sheathing.
Flower solitary, greenish-white with green and some darker longitudinal striae; galea 13-25 mm long, erect, then gradually curved forward in a semicircle; the dorsal sepal produced into a long filiform point 8-10 mm long; lateral sepals (lower lip) erect; the lobes separated by a V-shaped sinus, produced into filiform c. 20 mm long erect points, embracing the galea and exceeding it by c. 15 mm; labellum on a broad mobile claw, lamina lanceolate, c. 8 mm long, curved apex not very acute, with a raised longitudinal ridge throughout; basal appendage curved, densely penicillate at the apex; column erect, incurved, c. 10 mm long, only slightly longer than the labellum; upper angle of the wings with a short point, acute, lower lobes rounded, with ciliate margins; anther shortly pointed; stigma lanceolate.
Published illustration:
Gray (1971) Victorian native orchids, 2:66; Woolcock (1984) Australian terrestrial orchids, pl. 58A.
Distribution:
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Forms large colonies under dense Leptospermum and Melaleuca thickets in coastal or near coastal swamps in alkaline soils but very restricted.
S.Aust.: SE. Vic.
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Conservation status:
native
Flowering time: Oct. — March.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
No text
Author:
Not yet available
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