Pterostylis barbata Lindl.
Type locality: W. Australia. Recorded from Tasmania and all other Australian States except Queensland.
Plant to c. 25 cm. tall at fl. Stem partly enclosed in lfy bracts. Rosette lvs ∞; lamina c. 15–20 × 6 mm., ovate to lanceolate, acute; petiole shorter, winged; cauline lvs few, narrow, sheathing. Fl. us. solitary, remote from highest bract. Dorsal sepal 15–20 mm. tall, erect for most of its length then shortly horizontal, acute; lateral sepals united only near base, free parts linear and almost parallel, the whole deflexed in fully open fl. Petals narrow and almost parallel-sided. Labellum conspicuous, terete, filiform, clad throughout most of its length in long yellow hairs, the tip dark, glab., broader with narrow wings; basal appendage short, almost entire. Column erect; wings broader than long, ciliate over most of their free margins; stigma broad, long.
DIST.: N., scattered localities north of c. lat. 38º, and about Wellington. S., Westhaven, N.W. Nelson, V. M. Scott, 1955.
Under light scrub on clay hillsides.
FL. 10–11.
George (Western Australian Naturalist 8, 1961, 38–41) gives reasons for deciding that the type of P. barbata matches plants commonly known as P. turfosa Endl. in Lehm. Pl. preiss. 2, 1846, 5 in which the hairs on the labellum are translucent white and the sepals are long-pointed. Eastern Australian plants resemble those of N.Z. in having yellow labellum-hairs and shortly pointed sepals and they may, if considered specifically distinct from P. barbata sens. strict., be referred to P. plumosa Cady in Australian Plants 5, 1969, 138.
