Pterostylis furcata

Pterostylis furcata, commonly known as the forked greenhood, is a species of orchid endemic to Tasmania. Flowering plants have a rosette of bright green leaves at the base of the flowering stem and a single green and white flower with the tip of the dorsal sepal pointing above the horizontal.

Description
Pterostylis furcata is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber. Flowering plants have a rosette of bright green leaves loosely arranged around the base of the flowering stem, each leaf 30-80 mm long and 10-20 mm wide. A single green and white flower 35-40 mm long and 16-20 mm wide is borne on a spike 120-200 mm high. The dorsal sepal and petals are fused, forming a hood or "galea" over the column but the dorsal sepal is longer than the petals, has a sharp point on its end and points slightly upwards. There is a wide gap between the lateral sepals and the galea, and there is a curved, deeply notched sinus between them. The labellum is 18-22 mm long, about 3 mm wide, dark-coloured, curved and protrudes above the sinus. Flowering occurs from November to February.

Taxonomy and naming
Pterostylis furcata was first formally described in 1840 by John Lindley from a specimen collected in Tasmania and the description was published in The Genera and Species of Orchidaceous Plants. The specific epithet (furcata) is a Latin word meaning "forked".

Distribution and habitat
The forked greenhood grows in wet forest and in montane grassland in Tasmania.