Pterostylis rufa (Pterostylis rufa)
Description
Pterostylis rufa is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber. It has a rosette of between five and twelve elliptic to egg-shaped leaves, each leaf 10–30 mm (0.4–1 in) long and 7–13 mm (0.3–0.5 in) wide. Flowering plants have a rosette at the base of the flowering stem and between two and fifteen bright reddish-brown flowers with translucent white panels and which are 16–20 mm (0.6–0.8 in) long and 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 in) wide, each on a pedicel 5–20 mm (0.2–0.8 in) long. The flowering stem is 80–200 mm (3–8 in) high and there are between three and six stem leaves with their bases wrapped around it. The dorsal sepal and petals are fused to form a hood called the "galea" over the column, with the dorsal sepal having a thread-like tip up to 2 mm (0.08 in) long. The lateral sepals turn downwards, are about the same width as the galea, fused for more than half their length and have narrow tips 7–8 mm (0.28–0.31 in) long and spread apart from each other. The labellum is reddish-brown and insect-like, about 4 mm (0.2 in) long and 2 mm (0.08 in) wide. The "head" end is thickened, has many short white hairs and there are between four or five longer hairs on each side of the "body". Flowering occurs from September to November.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum:
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Class: Liliopsida
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Order: Asparagales
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Family: Orchidaceae
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Genus: Pterostylis
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