New Zealand Native Orchids

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Pterostylis montana

Mountain greenhood

Sunrise Track, Ruahine Range 7 December 2019. Photo: Bill Campbell
Photo: Bill Campbell
Recorded distribution
Recorded distribution

Plant

To 20 cm tall medium size. Leaves 15-20 cm x 10 mm, sometimes be quite bronze and tending to form a basal rosette or green and all cauline.

Flowers

Medium sized, 25-30mm tall, of two quite different extreme forms; the uniting characters are a rather boxy galea and a broad dark green to black labellum coming to an abruptly pinched and twisted tip just beyond the galea. At one extreme the tepals are very short and the lateral sepals flat, curled and red tipped, and very flat from their junction to their base. the stigma distinctly heart-shaped. At the other extreme the lateral sepals are rolled and slightly taller than the galea and the stigma is oval to elongate.

Flowering

September - December.

Habitat

Lowland to montane; grassland, open scrub and forest.

Conservation

Often abundant, widespread.

Notes

Hybrids are common with P. irsoniana and P. oliveri and suspected with P. banksii, P. cardiostigma and P. graminea.

Key features

Flower medium sized, compact, labellum broad dark green to black twisted at the prominently protruding tip

Photos

Sunrise Track, Ruahine Range 7 December 2019. Photo: Bill Campbell
Iwitahi 6 December 2015. Photo: Bill Campbell
Iwitahi 6 December 2015. Photo: Bill Campbell
Rangataua Wetland 13 December 2015. Photo: Bill Campbell
Okuku Scenic Reserve 28 November 2022. Photo: Bill Campbell
Sunrise Track, Ruahine Range 7 December 2019. Photo: Bill Campbell
Okuku Scenic Reserve 28 November 2022. Photo: Bill Campbell
Sunrise Track, Ruahine Range 7 December 2019. Photo: Bill Campbell
Waitonga Falls Track, Ohakune 2 January 2015. Photo: Bill Campbell
Photo: Ian St George
Photo: Eric Scanlen
Photo: Ian St George
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Greenhood orchids (Pterostylis)
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