''Pterostylis cheraphila'', commonly known as the floodplain rustyhood is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to a small area in Victoria. It has a rosette of leaves near its base and up to seven dark brown to blackish flowers with a dark brown, insect-like labellum. It is only found in the

Little Desert Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

area.

Description

''Pterostylis cheraphila'' 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 six and twelve leaves at the base of the flowering spike, each leaf long and wide. Up to seven dark brown to blackish flowers long and wide are borne on a flowering spike tall. Three 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 called the "galea" over the column with the dorsal sepal having a thread-like tip long. The lateral sepals are wider than the galea, dished and have densely hairy edges. They taper suddenly to narrow, thread-like tips long and are more or less parallel to each other. The labellum is dark brown, thin and insect-like, long and about wide. The edges of the labellum are wavy, with short, bristly hairs and there are two longer bristles near the "head" end. Flowering occurs from October to November.

Taxonomy and naming

''Pterostylis cheraphila'' was first formally described in 1993 by David Jones & Mark Clements from a specimen collected near Dimboola and the description was published in '' Muelleria''. 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 ...

(''cheraphila'') is said to be derived from the Greek words ''cheras'' meaning "alluvium", "silt" or "detritus" and ''philo'' meaning "loving", referring to the soil type where this species usually grows. In ancient Greek, ''philos'' (φίλος) is the word for "loving".Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie.''Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Distribution and habitat

Floodplain rustyhood is only known from the Little Desert area and near Murtoa where it grows with ephemeral plants in silty soils.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15492617 cheraphila Orchids of Victoria (Australia) Plants described in 1993