Pterostylis despectans
(Nicholls) M.A.Clem. & D.L.JonesFlowering plant 3–8 cm tall, stem leaves 3 or 4, closely sheathing. Rosette leaves 5–10, elliptic to obovate, 1–2 cm long, 6–9 mm wide, margins scabrid. Flowers 1–6, porrect to deflexed, 1–1.5 cm long, on slender pedicels to 1.5 cm long, transparent with brown, greyish or green markings and suffusions; dorsal sepal with an upcurved filiform point 10–13 mm long; lateral sepals deflexed, conjoined part narrowly ovate to elliptic in outline when flattened, shallowly concave, margins slightly incurved, densely ciliate, free points filamentous, 2–2.5 cm long, curved forwards, more or less parallel, often touching the ground, c. 10 mm apart at the tips; petals with a poorly developed proximal flange. Labellum oblong-elliptic, 4.5–5 mm long, c. 2 mm wide, green or brown, thin-textured; marginal hairs 8–10 pairs, c. 0.5 mm long, white; basal lobe erect, with 2 prominent, forward-pointing hairs c. 3 mm long. Flowers Oct.–Dec.
Wim, VVP, VRiv, Gold, CVU. Localized in Victoria where known from a few sites near Maryborough in Box/Ironbark forest, and discovered more recently in grasslands north of Bendigo and woodland south of Horsham.
Remarkable for its dwarf habit, long pedicels and the often deflexed flowers with the free points of the lateral sepals commonly touching the soil surface.
Jones, D.L. (1994). Pterostylis. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 798–830. Inkata Press, Melbourne.