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This is the time of year when greenhoods can be seen on most of the Anglesea tracks.

Nodding Greenhoods, Blunt Greenhoods, Banded Greenhoods, Tall Greenhoods, Green-striped Greenhoods, Maroonhoods, Trim Greenhoods, and Dwarf Greenhoods are all flowering as I am writing this in mid-August. The Large Pointed or Sharp Greenhood should be in flower, but as yet, I have not been able to locate it.

“I saw a greenhood in the forest deep.” When I became interested in terrestrial orchids, the only greenhood that I was aware of was the Nodding Greenhood, which was written about and illustrated on a set of Year 1 writing cards.

Nodding Greenhood
Nodding Greenhood

Gradually I was introduced to the other 17 species of greenhood (one hybrid) that flower in the Anglesea district at varying times. Some are quite common and widespread, while others are restricted to their specific habitat.

In recent years, some controversial, but not widely accepted, proposals, have been made, to split Pterostylis into a number of different genera. As part of the proposal, some of the experts have established criteria for the proposal, and used these to allocate species to seven groups as the basis for classification. However, the greenhoods are still classified by Vicflora as Pterostylis, but it is interesting to observe that the Anglesea District has species in five of them. The proposed groupings are shown in the table below:

Group No. Group Name Anglesea District Species
Group 1 Rustyhoods and Ruddyhoods No species
Group 2 Midget Greenhoods No species
Group 3 Tall Greenhoods and Banded Greenhoods Pterostylis sanguinea Banded Greenhood
P. chlorogramma Green-striped Greenhood
P. melagramma Tall Greenhood
Group 4 Tiny Greenhoods P. parviflora Tiny Greenhood
P. sp. aff. parviflora Brown Tipped Greenhood
Group 5 Greenhoods P. atrans Dark-tipped Greenhood
P. sp. aff revoluta Autumn Greenhood
Group 6 Greenhoods P. pedunculata Maroonhoods, P. alpina Mountain Greenhood
P. concinna Trim Greenhood, P. nana Dwarf Greenhood
P. foliata Slender Greenhood, P. falcata Sickle Greenhood
P. curta Blunt Greenhood, P. nutans Nodding Greenhood
Group 7 Bearded Greenhoods P. tasmanica Southern Bearded Greenhood
P. sp. aff plumosa (Anglesea) Large Bearded Greenhood
Hybrid: P. x ingens Large Pointed or Sharp Greenhood (hybrid between P. nutans and P. falcata)

Many leaves of our spring flowering orchids are appearing in the field. Leopard Orchids Diuris pardina are in flower, however, we need some warm weather now to encourage flowers to develop in other species.

Leopard Orchid
Leopard Orchid

All of these orchids are described and photographed in Orchids of the Anglesea District available from Angair.

Margaret MacDonald