About Pterostylis coccina Fitzg.
Pterostylis coccina Fitzg. is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous herb that grows from an underground tuber. When it is not flowering, it produces a rosette of two to five flat, egg-shaped dark green leaves. Each leaf is 15–30 mm long and 10–15 mm wide. Flowering plants bear a single flower on a spike 80–220 mm high, with three to five stem leaves growing along the spike. The individual flower is 40–50 mm long and 16–19 mm wide, and leans forwards; its colour is either white and bluish-green or white and red. The dorsal sepal and petals are fused together to form a hood, called a "galea", that covers the column. The dorsal sepal curves forward and ends in a thread-like tip 12–16 mm long. The lateral sepals are held close against the galea, have erect, thread-like tips 35–45 mm long, and have a relatively flat, slightly protruding sinus between their bases. The labellum is 20–25 mm long, about 4 mm wide, reddish-brown, blunt, curved, and protrudes beyond the sinus. Flowering takes place from January to April. This species, commonly called the scarlet greenhood, grows in grassy forest in the higher elevated areas, ranging from south of Mount Kaputar in New South Wales to north-eastern Victoria.
