''Pterostylis boormanii'', commonly known as the Sikh's whiskers, baggy britches, or Boorroans green-hood is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to south-eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It has a rosette of leaves and up to seven dark reddish-brown flowers with translucent "windows" and a thick, brown, bristly, insect-like labellum.

Description

''Pterostylis boormanii'', is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous,

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

with an underground tuber. It has a rosette of between eight and fourteen elliptic leaves at the base of the flowering spike, each leaf long and wide. The leaves are usually withered by flowering time. Up to seven dark reddish-brown flowers with translucent windows and long, wide are borne on a flowering spike tall. Two to five stem leaves are wrapped around the flowering spike. The dorsal sepal and

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s form a hood or "galea" over the column with the dorsal sepal having an upturned, thread-like tip long. The lateral sepals turn downwards, are wider than the galea, have thickened hairy edges and suddenly taper to narrow tips long which spread apart from each other. The labellum is thick, brown and insect-like, long and about wide. The "head" end has many short hairs and the "body" has five to eight hairs up to long on each side. Flowering occurs from September to November.

Taxonomy and naming

''Pterostylis boormanii'' was first formally described in 1944 by

Herman Rupp Herman Montague Rucker Rupp (27 December 1872 – 2 September 1956) was an Australian clergyman and botanist who specialised in orchids. He was known throughout his life as Montague Rupp (pronounced "Rupe") and in later life as the "Orchid Man". R ...

from a specimen collected near Peak Hill and the description was published in his book ''Orchids of New South Wales''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''boormanii'') honours the collector of the type specimen, John Boorman.

Distribution and habitat

Sikh's whiskers grows in drier forest and scrub, often in rocky places and in association with ''

Callitris ''Callitris'' is a genus of coniferous trees in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are 16 recognized species in the genus, of which 13 are native to Australia and the other three (''C. neocaledonica, C. sulcata'' and ''C. p ...

'' species. It occurs in New South Wales south from Narrabri, across inland Victoria and in the south-east of South Australia in areas receiving an average annual rainfall of .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15491407 boormanii Endemic orchids of Australia Orchids of New South Wales Orchids of South Australia Orchids of Victoria (Australia) Plants described in 1944 Taxa named by Herman Rupp