''Pterostylis clivicola'' is a plant in the orchid family
Orchidaceae and is
endemic to a small area near the border between
New South Wales and
Victoria. It has a
rosette of leaves and up to fourteen green flowers which have a
labellum with a dark green, beak-like
appendage
An appendage (or outgrowth) is an external body part, or natural prolongation, that protrudes from an organism's body.
In arthropods, an appendage refers to any of the homologous body parts that may extend from a body segment, including anten ...
.
Description
''Pterostylis clivicola'', 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 five and eight egg-shaped leaves, each leaf long and wide. Flowering plants have the rosette at the base of a flowering stem high with between three and fourteen translucent green flowers with dark green lines. 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. The dorsal sepal is pointed, erect near its base then curves forward. The
lateral sepals turn downwards, joined for part of their length, the joined part long and wide. The labellum is green, about long wide with a greenish-black appendage with three ridges. Flowering occurs from October to December.
Taxonomy and naming
This greenhood was first formally described in 2008 by
David Jones and given the name ''Hymenochilus clivicola''. The description was published in ''The Orchadian'' from a specimen collected near
Delegate.
In 2010,
Gary Backhouse
Gary may refer to:
*Gary (given name), a common masculine given name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
*Gary, Indiana, the largest city named Gary
Places
;Iran
* Gary, Iran, Sistan and Baluchestan Province
;Uni ...
changed the name to ''Pterostylis clivicola''.
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 ...
(''clivicola'') is derived from the
Latin word ''clivus'' meaning "ascent", "elevation", "hill" or "sloping hillside"
with the
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
''-cola'' meaning "dweller".
Distribution and habitat
''Pterostylis clivicola'' is only known from a population of about twenty plants growing in grassland near
Bendoc.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q17329301
clivicola
Endemic orchids of Australia
Orchids of New South Wales
Orchids of Victoria (Australia)
Plants described in 2008