''Pterostylis macrosepala'' is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to the central-west slopes of New South Wales. As with similar greenhoods, plants in flower differ from those that are not flowering. Non-flowering plants have a rosette of leaves flat on the ground, but those that are flowering have up to eight translucent green flowers with narrow, dark green stripes and up to ten stem leaves.

Description

''Pterostylis macrosepala'', 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. Non-flowering plants have a rosette of between three and five, egg-shaped to lance-shaped leaves, each leaf long and wide with a petiole up to long. Plants that are flowering lack a rosette but have up to eight flowers on a flowering spike high with between five and ten linear to lance-shaped stem leaves that are long and wide. The flowers are long, wide and 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 joined to form a hood called the "galea" over the column. The galea is translucent green with dark green stripes. The lateral sepals turn downwards and are long, wide and joined for more than half their length. The labellum is long, about wide and pale green with a blackish stripe along its mid-line. Flowering occurs from July to September.

Taxonomy and naming

''Pterostylis macrosepala'' was first formally described in 2006 by David Jones and given the name ''Bunochilus macrosepalus''. The description was published in ''Australian Orchid Research'' from a specimen collected in the Conimbla National Park. 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 macrosepala''. 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 ...

(''macrosepala'') is derived from the Ancient Greek word ''makros'' meaning "long" and the New Latin word ''sepalum'' meaning "sepal", referring to the large fused sepals.

Distribution and habitat

This greenhood is only known from the Conimbla Range where it grows in open forest.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17329291 macrosepala Orchids of New South Wales Plants described in 2006