Pterostylis bicolor

Pterostylis bicolor, commonly known as the black-tip greenhood, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It has a rosette of leaves and when flowering, three to ten well-spaced, bright green flowers with a blunt, greenish-black appendage on the labellum. It is similar to the swan orchid, Pterostylis cycnocephala but that species has a beak-like appendage and crowded flowers.

Description
Pterostylis bicolor, is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber. It has a rosette of between five and twelve dark green leaves, each leaf 10-35 mm long and 3-15 mm wide. When flowering there are between three and ten well-spaced, bright shiny green flowers 8-11 mm long and 4-5 mm wide on a flowering spike 80-300 mm tall. Six to eleven stem leaves are wrapped around the flowering spike. The dorsal sepal and petals form a hood or "galea" over the column. The lateral sepals turn downwards, 6-7 mm long and 7-8 mm wide, dished and joined for most of their length. The labellum is egg-shaped, 3 mm long and 2 mm wide, with a greenish-black, blunt, ridged, forward pointing appendage. Flowering occurs from August to November.

Taxonomy and naming
Pterostylis bicolor was first formally described in 1987 by David Jones & Mark Clements and the description was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland. The specific epithet (bicolor) is a Latin word meaning "two-coloured".

Distribution and habitat
The black-tip greenhood is widespread in New South Wales and found in scattered populations in Victoria. It grows in grassy woodland and forest.