NEW SOUTH WALES FLORA ONLINE

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Synonyms: Bunochilus tenuis D.L.Jones APNI*

Description: Terrestrial herb

Rosette stalk 15–45 mm long; leaves 3–5, ovate to lanceolate, 5–30 mm long by 4–9 mm wide, margins entire and plane or undulate; petioles to 3 mm long.

Flowering plants 15–55 cm tall; stem leaves 4–7, lanceolate, 20–65 mm long by 3–6 mm wide. Flowers 1–5, porrect, 14–16 mm long by 7–10 mm wide, nitid, translucent green with porminent dark green stripes. Dorsal sepal 15–20 mm long when flattened, shallowly curved, tip orange-brown. Synsepalum broadly ovate, 13–18 mm long by 7–10 mm wide, flat, deeply notched to 5–9 mm; margins curved; tips divergent to 6–9 mm apart, orange-brown. Petals narrow at the base where c. 1.5 mm wide, boradly flared near the middle, 13–16 mm long by 3.5–4.5 mm wide; anterior margin curved; basal flanges absent. Labellum oblong to oblong-obovate, 6.5–8.0 mm long by 2.5–3.0 mm wide, yellow-brown, or light to dark brown with a darker brown to fuscous medial longitudinal stripe; surface cells mostly short and bead-like, a few acicular cells toward the base; basal mound short and obscure; margins parallel or shallowly concave; lateral lobes well-developed; midlobe 1.5–2.0 mm long, narrowly notched, the lobes acute to acuminate, apex upcurved.

Illustration L. Elkan

Habitat Photo Lachlan Copeland

Habit Photo Lachlan Copeland

Flower Photo Lachlan Copeland

Flowering: September–October

Distribution and occurrence: Northern and central New South Wales, from near Torrington south to Bathurst and Abercrombie Caves, between 350–1000 m elevation.

Wet and dry sclerophyll forest and woodland.
NSW subdivisions: NT, CT

AVH map***

Some forms of Pterostylis tenuis are similar to P. majus but can be distinguished by the absence of long marginal hairs on the sides of the labellum.