''Pterostylis smaragdyna'', commonly known as the emerald-lip leafy greenhood, is a plant in the orchid family
Orchidaceae and is
endemic to south-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 ...
. Flowering plants have up to ten translucent green flowers with darker green markings. The flowers have an insect-like
labellum which is green with a darker green mound at the "head" end. Non-flowering plants have a
rosette of leaves but flowering plants lack the rosette, instead having five to seven stem leaves.
Description
''Pterostylis longifolia'', 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 lance-shaped leaves, each leaf long and wide. Flowering plants have up to ten translucent green flowers with darker green markings on a flowering spike high. The flowering spike has between five and seven linear to lance-shaped stem leaves which are long and wide. 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. ...
with the dorsal sepal having a short point on its tip. The lateral sepals turn downwards, long, wide and joined for most of their length. The labellum is insect-like, long, about wide, pale green with a dark geen stripe along it centre and a dark green mound on the "head" end. Flowering occurs from June to August.
Taxonomy and naming
''Pterostylis smaragdyna'' was first formally described in 1993 by
David Jones and
Mark Clements and the description was published in ''
Muelleria'' from a specimen collected near
Diamond Creek.
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 ...
(''smaragdyna'') is from the
Latin word ''smaragdinus'' meaning "emerald green", referring to the colour of the labellum of this species.
Distribution and habitat
The emerald-lip leafy greenhood grows in dry forest and woodland in the south-east corner of
New South Wales, central
Victoria including the outer suburbs of
Melbourne and in the south-east of
South Australia.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15493581
smaragdyna
Endemic orchids of Australia
Orchids of New South Wales
Orchids of South Australia
Orchids of Victoria (Australia)
Plants described in 1993