Pterostylis mutica

Pterostylis mutica, is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber. There is a rosette of between six and twelve, egg-shaped leaves, each leaf long and wide at the base of the plant. Between two and twenty well-spaced flowers are borne on a flowering spike high with five to ten stem leaves wrapped around it. The flowers are pale green, long and about wide. The dorsal sepal and petals are joined to form a hood called the "galea" over the column. The galea is curved with a pointed tip turning downwards. The lateral sepals turn downwards and are about long, wide, cupped and joined for most of their length. The labellum is about long, about wide and whitish-green with a dark green appendage. Flowering occurs from July to December. ==Taxonomy and naming==

Pterostylis mutica was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown from a specimen collected near Port Jackson and the description was published in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen. The specific epithet (mutica) is a Latin word meaning "shortened" or "docked" referring to the blunt petals and sepals. ==Distribution and habitat==

Pterostylis mutica is widespread and often common, growing in a wide range of habitats from near the coast to mountains, but usually in well-drained soil. It tolerates dry conditions, poor soil and exposed positions. It is widespread in New South Wales and Victoria and also occurs in south-east Queensland, south-eastern South Australia and the south-west of Western Australia. There is doubt about its presence in Tasmania ==Ecology==

The labellum of P. mutica is attractive to a species of gnat which lands on the labellum and grasps the dark green appendage. When it does so, the labellum springs upward, trapping the insect inside the now-closed flower. The gnat can now only escape by pushing between "wings" on the sides of the column. As it does so, it either removes a pollinium or deposits one from a previously visited flower of the same species, and pollination occurs. ==References==