Red-banded greenhood is a small, terrestrial, deciduous orchid from southern Australia that grows from an underground tuber, producing a rosette of leaves when not flowering and a spike of dark reddish-brown hooded flowers in winter and spring. It is a native wild orchid that suits well-drained soils in forest and woodland settings.
Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Orchid
Light
Part shade
Water
Water sparingly while in growth and keep the tuber dry during its summer dormancy.
Soil
Well-drained, sandy or loamy native soil with leaf litter.
Temperature
Cool to mild temperate conditions; tolerates winter frost.
How easy
Hard
Native range
S. Australia to Tasmania
Climate
subtropical
About
Pterostylis sanguinea, commonly known as the red-banded greenhood or dark-banded greenhood, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to southern Australia. The plants either have a rosette of leaves in the years when not flowering or stem leaves on a flowering spike. When flowering, it has up to about twelve flowers which are dark reddish-brown, sometimes green or green and brown with the dorsal sepal and petals joined, forming a hood over the column. It is a common and widespread orchid, found in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and, rarely, in Tasmania.
Where it grows
Pterostylis sanguinea occurs in Western Australia from north of Kalbarri in the north to Toolinna Cove in the east, in the south-east of South Australia and in disjunct areas of Victoria, west from Yarram. In Tasmania it is only found in the Strzelecki National Park on Flinders Island. It grows in forest and woodland in well-drained soils.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pterostylis sanguinea 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.