''Pterostylis crassa'', commonly known as the coarse leafy greenhood, is a plant in the orchid family

Orchidaceae Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Victoria. As with similar greenhoods, plants in flower differ from those that are not. Those not in flower have a rosette of leaves on a short stalk but when flowering, plants have up to four relatively large, shiny dark green

translucent In the field of optics, transparency (also called pellucidity or diaphaneity) is the physical property of allowing light to pass through the material without appreciable scattering of light. On a macroscopic scale (one in which the dimensions a ...

flowers on a flowering stem with stem leaves.

Description

''Pterostylis crassa'', is a terrestrial,

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

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. When not in flower, plants have a rosette of between three and six leaves, each leaf long and wide on a stalk high. Plants in flower lack a rosette but have up to four flowers on a flowering spike high with between three and six linear to lance-shaped stem leaves that are long and wide. The flowers are long, wide. The dorsal

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

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 are joined to form a hood called the "galea" over the column. The galea is transparent green with darker green lines and a brown or green, tapered tip. The lateral sepals turn downwards and are long, wide and joined for about half their length. The labellum is long, about wide and light brown with a dark stripe along its mid-line. Flowering occurs from September to October.

Taxonomy and naming

The coarse leafy greenhood was first formally described in 2006 by David Jones and given the name ''Bunochilus crassus''. The description was published in ''Australian Orchid Research''. In 2007,

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 crassa''. 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 ...

(''crassa'') is a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word meaning "thick", "fat" or "stout", referring to the thick, fleshy flowers of this species.

Distribution and habitat

''Pterostylis crassa'' occurs in dry woodland and forest in the far north-east corner of Victoria.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15493353 crassa Endemic orchids of Australia Orchids of Victoria (Australia) Plants described in 2006