Speculantha rubescens
Blushing Tiny Greenhood
Blushing Tiny Greenhood
Black Mountain, April 2022
Wikipedia links: Angiosperms > Monocots > Orchidaceae > Speculantha rubescens / Pterostylis_rubescens
Other links:
Common name: Tiny greenhood
Also, Blushing Tiny Greenhood
Conservation status: ...
Etymology:
The specific epithet (rubescens) is derived from the Latin word ruber meaning "red" or "reddish"
The suffix -escens meaning "becoming"
Flowers:
Green and white and brownish
Flowering plants have between three and eighteen well-spaced flowers 10–18 mm long are borne on a thin, wiry spike 150–600 mm high
Three to six leaves are wrapped around the flowering spike
The flowers are almost spherical, green and white near the base, brownish near the tip and age to pinkish
The dorsal sepal and petals are fused, forming a hood or "galea" over the column
The dorsal sepal curves forward near the top and has a rough tip
The lateral sepals are erect and held closely against the galea with narrow tips about 2 mm long that do not project above the galea
The sinus between the bases of the lateral sepals bulges forward and has a small notch in the centre
The labellum is about 4 mm long, 2 mm wide and is not visible above the sinus
Flowering occurs from January to May
Fruit:
Leaves:
When not flowering, a rosette of between 5and 15 egg-shaped to heart-shaped leaves lie flat on the ground
Each leaf is 6–25 mm long and 3–18 mm wide
Stem & branches:
Roots:
Habit:
It is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber
It is a species of orchid
As with similar orchids, the flowering plants differ from those which are not flowering
The non-flowering plants have a rosette of leaves
The flowering plants lack a rosette at the base and have up to eighteen tiny flowers
Habitat:
It grows on slopes and ridges in open forest and woodland
Distribution:
Endemic to south-eastern Australia
It is widespread in northern Victoria and on the central and southern tablelands of NSW
Additional notes:
Taxonomy
The blushing tiny greenhood was first formally described in 2008 by David Jones who gave it the name Speculantha rubescens
The description was published in The Orchadian from a specimen collected in the Conimbla National Park
In 2010 Gary Backhouse changed the name to Pterostylis rubescens
Sources of information:
(2023)