#pterostylis

[punkedsolar]

ITS ORCHID WEEK BABY, LETS CELEBRATE SPRING!

I did these a while back, it's time to revisit them! ORCHID WEEK STARTS ALL ORCHIDS NO STOPPING.

The first three are the ones I'm not very proud of - they are:

Tall Greenhood Pterostylis melagramma

Nodding Greenhood, Pterostylis nutans

Maroonhood orchid, Pterostylis pedunculata

Orchids are associated with huge flowers and exotic colours - but in Australia, we like them to be tiny weird little guys. We like 'em to look like bugs, spiders, ducks, and teeny hairy explosions.

[thiswillnotdo]

2023_11_21

[drhoz]

#2355 - Pterostylis montana - New Zealand Mountain Greenhood

AKA Pterostylis furcata var. linearis.

An orchid endemic to the North, South, and Chatham Islands, and despite the specific is found in a wide range of habitats from dense forest to peat bogs.

The 300-odd species of Greenhood orchid are also found in Australia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, and one Indonesian island. The first species described from New Zealand was the Tutukiwi in 1832, by Allan Cunningham. He named it Pterostylis macrophylla but did not publish his manuscript. Later it was recognised as the same as one collected by Joseph Banks on the Endeavour. With Cunningham's consent, the plant was named Pterostylis banksii in honour of Banks.

Whakapapa Village, North Island Volcanic Island, New Zealand

[naturelinkartbyruth]

[tasview]

Greenhood Orchids

Last week walking Ralphie up in the bush, I stumbled upon a small group of endemic Pterostylis – Greenhood Orchids beside a fire-trail under a tree. I only had my phone and took a few shots. I returned the next morning armed with the OM1 and a few prime lenses. Laowa 7.5mm f2.0 – 1/20 sec; f/16.0; ISO 200 The first two shots give an overview of the forest where they are situated, on an exposed…

[dame-de-pique]

Fred Brockett - Pterostylis banksii, c.1910

[urbanbismuth]

Australian orchid. Pterostylis genus.

[mybeingthere]

Pterostylis curta, the blunt greenhood, is a terrestrial orchid mainly from Australia. This terrestrial orchid emerges from a dormant corm to produce a single, quite strange, green and windowed flower. The flower uses visual or olfactory trickery (like many orchids) to attract certain flies.

It possesses a sensitive labellum which when triggered will pin the insect against the column of the flower for around a minute before releasing it. If all goes well, the insect will bear sticky pollinia away from the flower ensuring cross pollination when it visits another.

Like many geophytes (plants with underground storage vessels), it can also multiply asexually and establish genetically identical communities.

(Source: cpburrows.com)

[coffeeslot]

Nodding Greenhood, Pterostylis pedunculata, Deep Creek CP South Australia, Njarrindjeri Country.

[botanyone]

The Love Lies and Sweet Rewards of Australian Orchids

The Love Lies and Sweet Rewards of Australian Orchids https://ift.tt/wFm8gNB At school we’re taught that pollination is a partnership. Plants provide a reward, like nectar, and in return insects carry pollen to other plants. Producing a reward takes effort, wouldn’t it be easier to provide nothing? But how then would you attract pollinators? Australian Greenhood Orchids (Pterostylis) use their sexual wiles, by luring fungus gnats into thinking they’ve found a mate. Research by Hayashi and colleagues, published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, has found four new cases of pollination by sexual deception of male fungus gnats in Pterostylis. The secret of attraction for Pterostylis is in the scent. Previous research on one species, Pterostylis orbiculata, showed it released a very specific cocktail of chemicals that, to an amorous male gnat, smells like a female gnat. The scientists found that each orchid species only attracted a single type of gnat. Specialisation makes sense. This way, when the disappointed gnat leaves to find an actual gnat, you can be sure your limited amount of pollen is going to the right species of orchid and not getting wasted being delivered to the wrong orchid. Although, there is a chance your pollen will be to a bewildered or exasperated female gnat who wonders why all these suitors insist on wearing orchid pollen. The publication is the result of three seasons of study in southern Australia. The team used an experimental technique called “flower baiting” – carefully moving picked orchid flowers through different landscapes to observe which insects they attracted. The study produced over 288 hours of observations. The insects themselves were identified using microscopes and DNA analysis to confirm identifications. This work back in the lab also confirmed a surprising observation in the field. Hayashi and colleagues had seen gnats appearing to feed at two orchids, Pterostylis crispula and Pterostylis furva, that had been sexually deceiving them. Were the orchids combining strategies? They watched where the gnats fed, and then tested these parts of the flower in the lab for sugar sampling. In both cases, the orchids appeared to be producing small amounts of sugar as reward, as well as deceiving the pollinators. Sexual deception of pollinators in orchids is well known, so these results don’t turn everything upside-down. However, sexual deception has mainly focused on bees and wasps. No one has looked at gnats in this way. The research shows that while we may overlook gnats, plants certainly don’t. With twenty-eight species of Pterostylis threatened in Australia, getting a better view of this relationship is vital for conservation. Hayashi, T., Reiter, N., Phillips, R.D., & Peakall, R. (2025). How widespread is pollination by sexual deception of fungus gnats in Pterostylis (Orchidaceae)? Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. https://doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boae088 Cross-posted to Bluesky & Mastodon. Image: Pterostylis recurva by Gnangarra / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5 AU https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/deed.en, The post The Love Lies and Sweet Rewards of Australian Orchids appeared first on Botany One. via Botany One https://botany.one/ January 28, 2025 at 09:00AM

[punkedsolar]

Pterostylis parts.

One Breath per Day

[thiswillnotdo]

2022_11_29

[drhoz]

#2613 - Pterostylis oliveri - Oliver's Greenhood

Actually a fair-sized orchid - that isn't a Nasturtium in the background of the first photo.

Growing widely on the north end of South Island, in forest and scrub, often on the side of streams or in dense leaf litter from near Nelson to Arthurs Pass National Park but most often on limestone or marble. They can be abundant on marble.

First formally described by Scottish botanist Donald Petrie in 1894, and named atfer Professor Daniel Oliver of Kew Gardens.

Arthur's Pass, Aotearoa New Zealand.

[worldsandemanations]

Fred Brockett - Pterostylis banksii, c.1910

[official-nature-posts]

Pterostylis mentioned!

Cute little snail orchids were popping up on the farm last spring

Western Australian wildflower

[futomakigami]

コオロギラン(蟋蟀蘭、ティロスティリスナナ、Pterostylis Nana) 牧野富太郎 Dwarf snail orchid by Tomitaro Makikno