Citation: Cady, Austral. Pl. 5:138 (1969).

Synonymy: P. barbata sensu J. Black, Fl. S. Aust. 247 (1943), non Lindley. , Plumatichilos plumosum

Common name: Bearded green-hood.

Description:
Moderately robust, 12-30 cm high; leaves sessile, generally numerous, crowded at or near the base, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 1.5-5 cm long, often extending half-way up the stem, sometimes fewer and more distant, passing into acute sheathing bracts, often imbricate.

Flower green, usually solitary; galea erect, somewhat oblong, c. 30 mm long from the base to the crest, ending in a rather short subulate point, inflated in its lower half, the margins pinched laterally about the middle; lateral sepals (lower lip) linear, reflexed or recurved in the mature flower, the lobes almost parallel, linear, acute, c. 30 mm long; labellum c. 20 mm long, on a narrow-oblong irritable claw, filiform except at the extremities, narrowly channelled below; base dilated into an elongated somewhat boat-shaped process, glabrous and transversely corrugated above, ciliate on the margins and produced posteriorly beyond the insertion of the claw; tip ending in a dark-brown knob, with 2 small oblong depressed wings; filiform portion with long oblique yellow hairs; column erect, c. 20 mm long, rather broadly winged; upper border of the wings rounded with a prominent straight narrow-linear process, lower lobes blunt, falcate-oblong; anterior borders inturned and ciliate; stigma considerably wider than the column, 2-lobed, narrowly obovate, not viscid until after pollination.

Published illustration: Cady & Rotherham (1970) Australian native orchids in colour, pl. 12; Woolcock (1984) Australian terrestrial orchids, pl. 50A.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: FR, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, KI, SE.   W.Aust.; N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas.   New Zealand. Occurs singly or in small groups in forest, scrublands, heath or mallee heathland and sandy swamp margins. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Aug. — Nov.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available