Pterostylis ovata, commonly known as the Gawler Range rustyhood, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to South Australia. Both flowering and non-flowering plants have a rosette of leaves and flowering plants have up to six flowers which have transparent flanges on the petals and a striped, insect-like labellum.
Pterostylis ovata is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and a rosette of between three and seven leaves. The leaves are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. Flowering plants have a rosette at the base of the flowering stem but the leaves are usually withered by flowering time. Up to six translucent greenish-white flowers with red, brown or pink markings and NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide are crowded together on a flowering spike NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 tall. The dorsal sepal and petals form a hood or "galea" over the column with the petals having transparent flanges up to 10sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide on their outer edge. The dorsal sepal has a narrow tip NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long. The lateral sepals turn downwards, are much wider than the galea and suddenly taper to narrow, parallel tips NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long. The labellum is reddish with darker stripes, a raised central ridge and is insect-like, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and about 3sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. The "body" end has between sixteen and twenty short hairs on the sides. Flowering occurs from September to October.[1] [2]
Pterostylis ovata was first formally described in 1986 by Mark Clements from a specimen grown in the Australian National Botanic Gardens from material collected near Lake Acraman. The description was published in the fourth edition of Flora of South Australia.[3] The specific epithet (ovata) is a Latin word meaning "egg-shaped".[4]
The Gawler Range rustyhood grows in open situations on granite and quartzite outcrops in the Gairdner-Torrens and Eyre Peninsula botanic regions of South Australia.