Pterostylis melagramma, commonly known as the black-stripe leafy greenhood is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. Individual plants have either a rosette of three to six leaves or a flowering spike with up to twenty flowers and five to seven stem leaves. The flowers are translucent green with faint darker green lines and have a brownish-yellow labellum with a dark stripe.
Pterostylis melagramma, is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber. Non-flowering plants have a rosette of between three and six narrow egg-shaped leaves, each leaf NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide on a stalk NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 high. Flowering plants have up to twenty translucent flowers with faint darker lines on a flowering spike NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 high. The flowering spike has between five and seven stem leaves which are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. The flowers are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. The dorsal sepal and petals are joined to form a hood over the column with the dorsal sepal suddenly curving downwards near its tip which is often brown. The lateral sepals turn downwards and are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide and joined to each other for about half their length. The labellum is about 5sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, 2sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide, brownish-yellow and hairy with a dark stripe along its mid-line. Flowering occurs from June to November.[1] [2] [3]
Pterostylis melagramma was first formally described in 1998 by David Jones and the description was published in Australian Orchid Research.[4] The specific epithet (melagramma) is derived from the Greek words melas, melanos meaning 'dark' or 'black' and gramme, 'line', referring to the dark stripe on the labellum.
The black-stripe leafy greenhood is widely distributed and common in higher rainfall areas of Victoria and Tasmania and also occurs in south-eastern South Australia and southern New South Wales.[5]
This greenhood is classed as "endangered" in South Australia.