Tiny rustyhood (Pterostylis pusilla)
Description
Pterostylis pusilla is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber. It has a rosette of between three and eight leaves, each leaf 10–30 mm (0.4–1 in) long and 5–12 mm (0.2–0.5 in) wide. Flowering plants have a rosette at the base of the flowering stem and up to nine green and reddish-brown flowers with translucent white panels and which are 13–16 mm (0.5–0.6 in) long and about 5 mm (0.20 in) wide on a flowering stem 80–250 mm (3–10 in) tall. There are between two and four stem leaves with their bases wrapped around the flowering stem. The dorsal sepal and petals are fused to form a hood called the "galea" over the column, with the dorsal sepal having a narrow, upturned point 2–3 mm (0.08–0.1 in) long. The lateral sepals turn downwards, much narrower than the galea and have thread-like tips 3–5 mm (0.1–0.2 in) long. The labellum is relatively thick, reddish-brown and insect-like, about 4 mm (0.2 in) long and 2 mm (0.08 in) wide. The "head" end has many short hairs and there are between two and four longer hairs on each side of the body. Flowering occurs from September to October.
Taxonomic tree
-
Domain: Eukarya
-
-
Kingdom: Plantae
-
-
Phylum:
-
-
Class: Liliopsida
-
-
Order: Asparagales
-
-
Family: Orchidaceae
-
-
Genus: Pterostylis
-
-
-
-
-
-
