Pterostylis flavovirens, commonly known as the coastal banded greenhood,[1] is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae that is endemic to South Australia. As with other similar orchids, non-flowering plants differ from those in flower. Flowering plants have up to seven pale to translucent green flowers with darker green stripes. The flowers have an insect-like labellum which is yellowish green with a slightly darker green stripe along its centre. Non-flowering plants have a rosette of leaves on a stalk, but flowering plants lack the rosette, instead having three to six stem leaves.
Pterostylis flavovirens, is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber. Non-flowering plants have a rosette of between three and five egg-shaped leaves, each leaf NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide on a stalk NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 tall. Flowering plants have up to seven transparent pale to translucent green flowers with darker green stripes on a flowering spike NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 high. The flowering spike has between three and six egg-shaped stem leaves which are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. The dorsal sepal and petals are fused, forming a hood or "galea" over the column with the dorsal sepal NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and shallowly curved with a brownish tip. The petals are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, about 2sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide with narrow flanges on their outer edges. The lateral sepals are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 and joined for all but about 3sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1, forming a structure NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide. The labellum is insect-like, NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long, about 2sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide, with a darker green stripe along its centre and a mound on the "head" end. Flowering occurs from July to September.[2]
This orchid was first formally described in 2006 by David Jones who gave it the name Bunochilus flavovirens. The description was published in the journal Australian Orchid Research from a specimen collected near Port Lincoln.[3] In 2008 Robert Bates changed the name to Pterostylis flavovirens.[4] The specific epithet (flavovirens) is derived from the Latin words flavus meaning “golden-yellow” or "yellow"[5] and virens meaning "green", referring to the colour of the labellum.
Pterostylis flavovirens is found in coastal areas of the Eyre Peninsula, Yorke Peninsula, Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island and South-Eastern botanical regions of South Australia.[6] It often grows in accumulated leaf litter under small trees and shrubs.