Pterostylis praetermissa, commonly known as the Mount Kaputar rustyhood is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to New South Wales. It has a rosette of leaves and up to nine relatively small greenish and reddish-brown flowers with transparent "windows" and a reddish-brown, insect-like labellum.
Pterostylis praetermissa is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber. It has a rosette of between five and eight leaves, each leaf NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. Flowering plants have a rosette at the base and up to eight greenish and reddish-brown flowers with transparent panels and which are NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide on a flowering stem NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 tall. There are between two and five stem leaves with their bases loosely wrapped around the flowering stem. The dorsal sepal and petals form a hood called the "galea" over the column with the dorsal sepal having a narrow point NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long. The lateral sepals turn downwards, about the same width as the galea and have thread-like tips NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long. The labellum is almost flat, reddish-brown, fleshy and insect-like, about 5sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and 2sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. The "head" end has many short hairs and there are between twelve and fifteen longer hairs on each side of the body. Flowering occurs from September to October.[1] [2]
Pterostylis praetermissa was first formally described in 1989 by David Jones and Mark Clements from a specimen collected from near the Mount Kaputar National Park and published the description in Australian Orchid Research.[3] The specific epithet (praetermissa) is derived from the Latin words praeter meaning "beyond", "past" or "more than"[4] and missus meaning "sent".
The Mount Kaputar rustyhood occurs in isolated populations on forest slopes and rocky ridges between Mount Kaputar and Barrington Tops.