Pterostylis erecta, commonly known as the upright maroonhood, is a species of orchid endemic to eastern Australia. Flowering plants have a rosette of four to seven stalked, dark green, crinkled leaves and a greenish to reddish-brown flower with a gap between the petals and lateral sepals. It occurs in New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland.
Pterostylis erecta is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber. Flowering plants have a rosette of between four and seven stalked, dark green, crinkled leaves, each leaf 15–50 mm long and 10–25 mm wide. A single flower 18–22 mm long and 5–7 mm wide is borne on a spike 150–350 mm high. The flowers are greenish to reddish brown or dark chocolate brown. The dorsal sepal and petals are fused, forming a hood or "galea" over the column but the dorsal sepal is longer than the petals and has a sharp point on its end. There is a wide gap between the petals and the lateral sepals and the sinus between the lateral sepals has a central notch and bulges slightly forward. The labellum is 6–7 mm long, about 2 mm wide, brown, blunt and just visible above the sinus. Flowering occurs from August to September.[1] [2]
Pterostylis erecta was first formally described in 1958 by Trevor Edgar Hunt from a specimen collected near Samford in Queensland. The description was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland.[3] The specific epithet (erecta) is a Latin word meaning "upright".[4]
The upright maroonhood grows mainly in coastal and near coastal forest north from Moruya in New South Wales to south-eastern Queensland.