''Pterostylis daintreana'', commonly known as Daintree's greenhood, is a species of orchid endemic to 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 ...

. The non-flowering plants have a rosette of leaves on short stalks but flowering plants have up to ten flowers with rosettes on the side of the flowering spike. The flowers are translucent white with dark green lines and long, downcurved lateral sepals.

Description

''Pterostylis daintreana'' 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 and when not flowering, a rosette of between three and ten egg-shaped to heart-shaped leaves long and wide. Flowering plants have a one or two rosettes on the side of the flowering stem high with between three and ten flowers and three to five stem leaves. The flowers are long and wide and translucent white with dark green markings. 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 are fused, forming a hood or "galea" over the

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

. The dorsal sepal has a thread-like tip long. The lateral sepals are joined near their bases then curve downwards with narrow ends long and parallel to each other. The labellum is about long, wide and dark brown with two large side lobes. Flowering occurs from January to July.

Taxonomy and naming

''Pterostylis daintreana'' was first formally described in 1873 by George Bentham, assisted by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

, from a specimen collected by Richard Daintree near

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. The description was published in '' Flora Australiensis''. 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 ...

(''daintreana'') honours the collector of the

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

specimen.

Distribution and habitat

Daintree's greenhood grows on the coast and tablelands of New South Wales and southern Queensland among small shrubs or on mossy rocks.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15498307 daintreana Endemic orchids of Australia Orchids of New South Wales Orchids of Queensland Plants described in 1943