Pterostylis borealis is a species of flowering plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to north Queensland. It is a glabrous, tuberous, terrestrial herb with spreading rosette leaves and smooth, green, white and light brown flowers.
Pterostylis borealis, is a glabrous, terrestrial herb that typically grows to a height of and has an underground tuber. It has 3 to 7 spreading rosette leaves long and wide, but are lost by the time flowering occurs. Up to 3 green and white flowers, flushed with light brown, are borne on pedicels long, each flower long and wide. The dorsal sepal and petals are fused, forming a hood or "galea" over the column, the dorsal sepal egg-shaped to lance-shaped, long and wide. The lateral sepals are held close to the galea and are deeply notched, wide and joined for long. The petals are oblong, long and wide and the labellum is long, wide with a raised, pale brown callus. The column is long with wings about long. Flowering occurs in late winter and autumn.[1]
This greenhood orchid was first formally described in 2016 by David Jones who gave it the name Speculantha borealis from specimens collected on St. Patricks Hills in Herberton in 1991 and description was published in Australian Orchid Review.[2] In 2017, Jones transferred the species to Pterostylis as P. borealis.[3] The specific epithet (borealis) means "northern", referring to the most northerly distribution of this orchid.
Pterostylis borealis grows in gravelly soil of granite boulders in open forest and is only known form the Atherton and Evelyn Tablelands in north-eastern Queensland.
Pterostylis borealis is classified as "special least vulnerable" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.[4]