Chiloglottis cornuta
Chiloglottis cornuta, commonly known as the green bird orchid, is a species of orchid found in south-eastern Australia and in New Zealand, including many of its offshore islands. It has two broad leaves and a single green or pinkish flower with six to eight rounded, flattened green, reddish or blackish calli on the labellum.Description
Chiloglottis cornuta is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with two elliptic leaves long and wide on a petiole long. A single green to reddish flower long and wide is borne on a flowering stem high. The dorsal sepal is lance-shaped to egg-shaped, long and wide. The lateral sepals are long, about wide and curve forwards. There is a glandular tip about long on the sepals. The petals are linear to lance-shaped, long, about wide and spread widely apart from each other. The labellum is heart-shaped, long and wide with six to eight rounded dark red, green, reddish or blackish calli. The column is erect, almost as long as the dorsal sepal with broad wings on the upper half. Flowering occurs from November to February.Taxonomy and naming
Chiloglottis cornuta was first formally described in 1844 by Joseph Dalton Hooker from a specimen collected near "Campbell's Island" and the description was published in Flora of [Lord Auckland and Campbell's Islands|Flora Antarctica]. The specific epithet is a Latin word meaning "bearing horns".Distribution and habitat
The green bird orchid grows in moist places in sheltered forest in far south-eastern New South Wales, eastern Victoria, far south-eastern South Australia and in Tasmania. In New Zealand it occurs on both the North and South Islands and on Stewart, Chatham, the Antipodes, Campbell and Auckland Islands.