Patersonia macrantha is a species of plant in the iris family Iridaceae and is endemic to the northern part of the Northern Territory. It is a tuft-forming herb with linear to sword-shaped leaves and pale violet tepals.
Patersonia macrantha is a tuft-forming herb with flat, linear to sword-shaped leaves long and wide. The flowering scape is long, smooth and softly-hairy near the tip, and the sheath enclosing the flowers is elliptic, long and pale brown. The outer tepals are pale violet, egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, or elliptic, long and wide. Flowering occurs from January to March.[1]
Patersonia macrantha was first described in 1846 by George Bentham in Flora Australiensis.[2] Bentham recorded that the type specimens were collected in the Darling Range by Alexander Collie.[3] However, the sheet bearing the type specimens in the Kew Herbarium was inscribed "Armstrong, Port Essington" in W.J. Hooker's handwriting, later crossed out by Bentham with a note "probably Darling Range, Collie (the loose scape was with the Darling Range occidentalis)".[4] The specific epithet (macrantha) means "large-flowered".[5]
This patersonia is widespread in the northern part of the Northern Territory where it grows in forest and woodland.[6]
Patersonia macrantha is classified as "least concern" under the Northern Territory Government Northern Territory Government Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1976.