''Pterostylis porrecta'' is a species of greenhood orchid endemic to New Zealand. Flowering plants have spreading, grass-like leaves on the flowering stem and a single small, transparent white and green flower with the lateral sepals held close to horizontally in front of the flower.

Description

''Pterostylis porrecta'' is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous,

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

with an underground tuber. Non-flowering plant have a rosette of three or four linear to lance-shaped, dark green leaves which are long and wide. Flowering plants have a single transparent white flower with green lines and long on a flowering stem tall. There are also four or five linear to lance-shaped leaves long and wide with their bases wrapped around the flowering stem. The flower leans forward and the dorsal sepal and

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s are fused, forming a hood or "galea" over the

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

. There is a wide gap between the galea and the lateral sepals which have long, tapering tips, spread apart from each other and held almost horizontally in front of the flower. The labellum is gently curved, greenish with a pink tip and does not protrude through the sinus between the lateral sepals. Flowering occurs in December and January.

Taxonomy and naming

''Pterostylis porrecta'' was first formally described in 1997 by David Jones, Brian Molloy and Mark Clements and the description was published in ''The Orchadian''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''porrecta'') is a Latin word meaning "spread out" or "stretched.

Distribution and habitat

The shrimp-flowered greenhood usually grows in deep shade in forest and scrub. There are scattered populations on both the North and

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

Conservation status

''Pterostylis porrecta'' is classed as "at risk – naturally uncommon" under the New Zealand Threat Classification System.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15493297 porrecta Orchids of New Zealand Plants described in 1997