Pterostylis barringtonensis, commonly known as the Barrington leafy greenhood, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to New South Wales. As with similar greenhoods, the flowering plants differ from those which are not flowering. The non-flowering plants have a rosette of leaves on a short stalk but the flowering plants lack a rosette and have up to seven dark green flowers on a flowering stem with stem leaves. It is only known from Barrington Tops.
Pterostylis barringtonensis, is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber. Non-flowering plants have a rosette of between three and six leaves, each leaf NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide on a stalk NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 high. Flowering plants lack a rosette but have up to seven flowers on a flowering spike NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 high with between five and seven linear stem leaves which are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. The flowers are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide. The dorsal sepal and petals are joined to form a hood called the "galea" over the column. The galea is dark green with darker green lines and a brown, tapered tip. The lateral sepals turn downwards and are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide and joined for about half their length. The labellum is NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, about 3sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide and brown with a dark stripe along its mid-line. Flowering occurs from June to August.[1] [2]
The Barrington greenhood was first formally described in 2006 by David Jones who gave it the name Bunochilus barringtonensis. The description was published in Australian Orchid Research from a specimen collected in the Barrington Tops National Park.[3] In 2010, Gary Backhouse changed the name to Pterostylis barringtonensis.[4] The specific epithet (barringtonensis) refers to the area where this greenhood grows with the Latin suffix -ensis meaning "place for" or "where",[5] referring to Barrington Tops.
Pterostylis barringtonensis occurs in moist places in tall forest in the Barrington Tops area.[6]