Pterostylis R. Br.

Glabrous or puberulous terrestrial herbs, with small globular tubers and slender succulent roots, Leaves orbicular to narrow linear-

lanceolate, sessile or petiolate, basal or cauline or both, sheathing at the base. Flowers solitary or several in a terminal raceme, varying from pale green to deep red and more or less striate. Dorsal sepal and petals conniving to form an erect or incurved hood over the column. Dorsal sepal obtuse to filiform-caudate. Petals variously falcate, subacute to acuminate, as long as or shorter than the dorsal sepal. Lateral sepals erect or deflexed, conjoined at the base, the free lobes obtuse, linear, subulate or filiform-caudate. Labellum filiformterete or variously laminate, glabrous to densely plumose, mounted on an articulate sensitive claw and with a basal appendage which may be variously penicillate or entire. Column erect or inclined, free or partly adnate to the dorsal sepal. Stigma near the centre of the column, linear-lanceolate to globose, 2-celled, viscid. Column-wings variously lobed, the lower usually larger than the upper. Anther terminal, more or less horizontal, 2-celled. Pollinia 4, free, pollen granular or powdery, caudicle absent. Rostellum erect between the bases of the anther-cells.

A genus of some 67 species occurring throughout Tasmania, Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and the Chathams.