Flora of New Zealand Series

Type sp.: E. mucronata Lindl.

Infl. terminal, paniculate, of several racemes produced in succession up one axis, each raceme with several to many crowded empty bracts near its base; floral bracts more widely spaced, small. Per. glab.; labellum uppermost; sepals and petals free, subequal, spreading. Labellum ± lobed, broad above the narrow sessile base, lacking conspicuous calli, at first erect and embracing column. Column short, ± cylindric, very narrowly winged, foot very short or absent; anther terminal, operculate, incumbent, narrowly joined to column just below its apex, caducous, pollinia 4, ± waxy; stigma deeply concave, separated from anther by prominent rostellum to the tip of which the pollinia adhere by their lower ends. Plants epiphytic or rupestral; lfy stems ∞, cane-like, enclosed within lf-sheaths, unbranched, arising from prostrate sympodial axis bearing long, sts green roots. Lvs ± distichous, narrow-linear, jointed to sheath which is ± flattened. Genus of c. 10 spp., 5 in New Caledonia, 2 in N.Z., and 1 each in Tahiti, Samoa, and Fiji (possibly 2), the N.Z. spp. endemic.

Many of the characters of Earina are seen also in spp. of the large tropical American genus Epidendrum in which, however, the broad lower part of the labellum remains erect, and ± adnate to the column.

A lfy shoot often persists a year or more after flowering. The panicle remains alive and not infrequently produces a second crop of racemes by the growth of an occasional resting bud in the axil of a non-flowering bract at the base of one or more of the spent racemes. Fls are strongly fragrant.

Fig. 34. EARINA, DENDROBIUM. Lettering as in fig. 20, p. 103; Co. f = column-foot; Lf. s = leaf-sheath; Ne = nectary; Pol = waxy pollinia. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X2S]