Pterostylis conferta, commonly known as the leprechaun greenhood or basalt midget greenhood, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to Victoria.
Pterostylis conferta, is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber. Non-flowering plants have a rosette of between five and ten, egg-shaped leaves, each leaf NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. Flowering plants have a similar rosette at the base of a flowering stem which is up to 160sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 high with between five and sixteen crowded, pale green flowers with darker green stripes. The dorsal sepal and petals are joined to form a hood called the "galea" over the column and which curves forward and then downwards with a pointed tip. The lateral sepals are broadly egg-shaped, turn downwards and are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and wide. They are joined at their bases and their edges are rolled inwards. The labellum is about 3sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and wide, pale green with a dark green appendage. Flowering occurs from October to January.[1] [2]
The leprechaun greenhood was first formally described in 2009 by David Jones and given the name Hymenochilus confertus from a specimen collected near Woorndoo. The description was published in Orchadian.[3] In 2010 Gary Backhouse changed the name to Pterostylis conferta.[4] The specific epithet (conferta) is a Latin word meaning "pressed together", "crowded", "thick" or "dense".[5]
Pterostylis conferta used to grow on basalt grassland but is now restricted to a single small population growing on a stony hill.
This greenhood orchid is classified as "threatened" under the Victorian Government Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988.