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Irson’s Greenhood Orchid

Pterostylis irsoniana

Irson’s Greenhood Orchid
Photo: PermaCultured from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0

Irson's Greenhood is a small, deciduous, tuber-forming terrestrial orchid native to New Zealand, found in grassland and montane forest. It is a wild species that is rarely grown in gardens, and it needs cool, moist, shaded conditions with a dormant period.

Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Orchid
Light
Part shade
Water
Keep the soil moist during the growing season and let it dry lightly while the plant is dormant.
Soil
Humus-rich, free-draining soil with leaf litter, similar to forest floor conditions.
Temperature
5–20 °C; tolerates cool temperate winters.
How easy
Hard
Native range
New Zealand
Climate
temperate

About

Pterostylis irsoniana is a species of greenhood orchid endemic to New Zealand. There are up to five erect leaves on the flowering stem with a single dark green flower with white stripes and a reddish tinge on the tips. It has a distinctive curved labellum with a curled tip with a dark red callus.

Where it grows

This greenhood grows in grass and montane forests of Nothofagus and subalpine Podocarpus scrub, often in deep leaf litter or on the edge of bogs. In the North Island it occurs from East Cape to Wellington and in the South Island on the western side as far south as Haast.

Other Pterostylis plants

Tablelands greenhood · Needle-point rustyhood · Pterostylis actites · Sharp greenhood · Long-tongued summer greenhood · Kauri Greenhood · Sutton Grange Greenhood · Striped greenhood · Shy greenhood · Winter Greenhood · Alpine greenhood · Coastal greenhood

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pterostylis irsoniana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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