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Banded greenhood

Pterostylis vittata

Banded greenhood
Photo: Brett Coulstock, CC BY 3.0 au

Banded greenhood is a small, deciduous terrestrial orchid from south-west Western Australia that grows from an underground tuber and bears translucent green, darker-striped flowers in winter and spring. It is a wild native rather than a common garden plant, so it is best left in its natural habitat or grown only from ethically sourced material.

Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Orchid
Light
Part shade
Water
Keep the soil moist during the growing season and let it dry out while the plant is dormant.
Soil
Well-drained, sandy or gritty soil with leaf litter, similar to its natural forest and heath habitat.
Temperature
Cool to mild temperatures suited to a Mediterranean-type climate; protect from hard frost.
How easy
Hard
Native range
S. Australia
Climate
subtropical

About

Pterostylis vittata, commonly known as banded greenhood or green-banded greenhood, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. The plants either have a rosette of leaves on a short stalk in the years when not flowering or stem leaves on a flowering spike. When flowering, it has up to about twenty five flowers which are translucent green with darker green stripes. It was formerly thought to occur in South Australia and Victoria but those collections are now thought to be of Pterostylis sanguinea.

Where it grows

Banded greenhood occurs to the south of Perth and as far east as Balladonia, growing in forest, woodland and heath, although more often on granite outcrops in the east of its range. It was previously thought to occur in South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania, but those collections are now thought to be of P. sanguinea.

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 vittata 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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