Pterostylis oliveri
Common names
Oliver’s greenhood
Biostatus
Native
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Orchids
Flower colours
Green, White
Detailed description
Terrestrial, tuberous, glabrous, spring to summer-green perennial herb, mostly solitary or forming small patches of 3–5 plants through vegetative extension. Plant at flowering 100–380 mm tall. Stem more or less erect to decumbent, smooth, yellow green to green, internodes mostly shorter than leaves, sometimes very short near base. Leaves 4–6, spreading, margins entire, size changing from base to top of stem; lamina of lower leaves 50–100 × 20–30 mm, oval to broadly elliptic or narrowly obovate, apex obtuse, narrowing to a broadly winged, mostly short petiole; upper leaves progressively more acute, the uppermost little shorter but sessile, ovate, sometimes almost acuminate, often reaching but scarcely overtopping the galea. Flower solitary, erect, front mostly dark green finely striped with white, stripes of white widening toward back of galea with green narrowing. Ovary erect. Dorsal sepal 30–50 mm tall, slightly to distinctly inclined in its proximal portion, apex long, narrow, more or less parallel-sided with only weakly involute margins, strongly deflexed; lateral sepals diverging at a narrow angle, caudae of lobes greatly attenuated erect, sometimes strongly deflexed to the back of the galea. Petals much shorter than dorsal sepal with acute apices. Labellum narrowly triangular, slightly arched protruding. Column shorter than labellum; stigma narrowly ellipsoid, scarcely distinguished from column and rather flat.
Similar taxa
Close to Pterostylis patens Colenso, from which it differs by the often decumbent or sprawling rather than consistently erect habit, distinctly wider oval to broadly elliptic rather than broadly lanceolate to linear-lanceolate (grassy) leaves; and by the lateral sepals whose caudae though very long are mostly held erect rather than consistently strongly deflexed back and down, sometimes meeting at the back of the galea.
Distribution
Endemic. New Zealand: South Island (in the west from North-west Nelson to about Arthur’s Pass National Park).
Habitat
Montane forest and subalpine scrub (rarely above 1200 m a.s.l.). Often along stream sides or under shrubs growing in dense drifts of partially decomposed leaf litter. Sometimes common on track side banks and cuttings.
Current conservation status
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2022-2023 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website. This report includes replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Previous assessments can be found here.
Please note, threat classifications are often suggested by authors when publications fall between NZTCS assessment periods – these interim threat classification statuses has not been assessed by the NZTCS panel.
- Conservation status of vascular plants in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023. 2024. Peter J. de Lange, Jane Gosden, Shannel P. Courtney, Alexander J. Fergus, John W. Barkla, Sarah M. Beadel, Paul D. Champion, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Troy Makan and Pascale Michel Department of Conservation. Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
2023 | Not Threatened
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Orchidaceae
Synonyms
None
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Ecology
Flowering
December–January
Fruiting
January–April
Propagation technique
Difficult—should not be removed from the wild. Basic orchid mix consists of 2 parts medium coarse sand, ideally clean river sand; 2 parts soil, humus or leaf-mould; 1 part weathered sawdust or rotting wood; 1 part granulated bark. For Pterostylis shade of 50% and pots kept evenly moist.
Other information
Where To Buy
Not commercially available
Etymology
pterostylis: Winged column
Manaaki Whenua Online Interactive Key
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
PTEOLI
Chromosome number
2n = 44
Previous conservation statuses
2017 | Not Threatened
2012 | Not Threatened
2009 | Not Threatened
2004 | Not Threatened
Referencing and citations
References and further reading
Moore LB, Edgar E. 1970. Flora of New Zealand, Volume II. Indigenous Tracheophyta: Monocotyledones except Gramineae. Government Printer, Wellington, NZ. 354 p.
Attribution
Fact Sheet prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange 14 April 2007: Description adapted from Moore and Edgar (1970).
Some of this factsheet information is derived from Flora of New Zealand Online and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand licence.
NZPCN Fact Sheet citation
Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Pterostylis oliveri Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/pterostylis-oliveri/ (Date website was queried)