Pterostylis major
Pterostylis major is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to New South Wales where it grows on the Northern Tablelands. As with similar greenhoods, the flowering plants differ from those which are not flowering. The non-flowering plants have a rosette of leaves on a short stalk but the flowering plants lack a rosette and have up to eleven well-spaced, bright green flowers with darker stripes, on a flowering stem with stem leaves.
Description
Pterostylis major is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber. Non-flowering plants have a rosette of between three and six leaves, each leaf long and wide on a stalk high. Flowering plants lack a rosette but have up to eleven flowers on a flowering spike high with between five and seven linear to lance-shaped stem leaves which are long and wide. The flowers are well-spaced, long, wide and translucent bright green with darker green stripes. The dorsal sepal and petals are joined to form a hood called the "galea" over the column. The dorsal sepal is long and shallowly curved. The petals are oblong, long, about wide and are also shallowly curved. The lateral sepals are fused to form a single structure long and wide with a central notch deep. The labellum is egg-shaped to oblong, long, wide, pale to yellowish green with a brown to blackish line along the middle. Flowering occurs from April to September.
Taxonomy and naming
This species was first formally described in 2006 by David Jones and given the name Bunochilus major. The description was published in the journal Australian Orchid Research from a specimen collected along the Point Lookout Road from the Waterfall Way. In 2010, Gary Backhouse changed the name to Pterostylis major. The specific epithet is a Latin word meaning "large" or "great", referring to the larger size of this species compared to the similar Pterostylis longifolia.
Distribution and habitat
Pterostylis major grows with grasses and shrubs in tall forest on the New England Tableland and south to the Barrington Tops.