Habenaria chlorosepala, commonly known as the green-hooded rein orchid, is a species of orchid that is endemic to a small area in far north Queensland. It has two or three leaves at its base and up to twenty small green and white flowers.
Habenaria chlorosepala is a tuberous, perennial herb with two or three bluish-green, erect leaves, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. Between eight and twenty green flowers with a white labellum, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide are borne on a flowering stem NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 tall. The dorsal sepal and petals overlap at their bases and form a hood over the column. The sepals and petals are about 5sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and 3sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide, the lateral sepals spread widely apart from each other. The labellum is NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide with three lobes, the side lobes arranged at about 90° to the middle lobe. The labellum spur is white, NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long, about 1sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide and curves forward. Flowering occurs between January and April.[1]
Habenaria chlorosepala was first formally described in 1998 by David Jones from a specimen collected near Cooktown by Lewis Roberts in 1993 and the description was published in The Orchadian.[2] The specific epithet (chlorosepala) is derived from the Ancient Greek word chloros meaning "green"[3] and the Neo-Latin word sepalum meaning "a leafy division of the calyx".[3]
The green-hooded rein orchid has a narrow distribution south of Cooktown where it grows with low plants in summer-wet woodland.