Flora of New Zealand Series

Ophrys unifolia Forst.f. Prodr.  1786,  59.

Epipactis porrifolia Swartz in K. svenska Vet. Akad. Handl. 21,  1800,  233.

Microtis banksii Hook. in Bot. Mag.  62,  1835,  sub. t. 3,377.

M. longifolia Col. in T.N.Z.I.  17,  1885,  247.

M. papillosa Col. in T.N.Z.I.  18,  1886,  269.

Original locality: "Noua Zeelandia". Type: There is a Forster specimen at GOET, and the sp. is listed amongst those in the Forster herbarium at P.At BM amongst G. Forster's illustrations is a painting of this sp. labelled "Charlotte's Sound, N.Z."

Plant at fl.10–100 cm. tall. Stem erect, ± fleshy. Lf often overtopping raceme. Raceme occ. to 30 × 1 cm., us. smaller; fls few to ∞, us. almost touching throughout. Per. green. Dorsal sepal c. 3 mm. long, tip acute and us. slightly turned upwards; laterals shorter, acute, deflexed, tips sts tending to coil under. Petals ± under dorsal sepal. Labellum oblong, often narrowest about mid-length; tip truncate to emarginate, not apiculate though sts folded to appear so; margin papillose and us. also crenate and undulate; anterior callus variously developed, verrucose, often raised on a rounded ridge; large basal calli oval, prominent, us. continuous at sides with narrow band of callus behind transverse furrow which is slit-like, not pouched; labellum standing away from ovary at very narrow angle. Base of column about as broad as stigma; wings us. membr. throughout.

DIST.:N.,S.,St., Ch.

Open places, as on banks and in poor pastures, sts extremely abundant.

FL. 10–2.

M. longifolia Col. Original locality: "Skirts of woods near Norsewood, County of Waipawa; flowering in Feb. and March; 1883–84: W.C." Type: WELT 24277 is labelled by Cheeseman as "Type of M. longifolia Col.", as is AK 3452. Neither has a Colenso label.

M. papillosa. Original locality: "Kaipara Heads, West Coast, North Island: Mr. C. P. Winkelmann; in letter Oct.1884.Flowering in October". No specimen found in Herb. Colenso at WELT, or at AK.

Fls and pollination are described in detail by Thomson (T.N.Z.I. 11, 1879, 422) under M. porrifolia. In a glasshouse at Lincoln seedlings produced lvs 5–10 cm. long in the first year after the parent plant flowered, the tuber being by then 5 × 2 mm. by the second season lvs were up to 45 cm. long. Seeds spread widely and seedlings establish easily both in glasshouse and frames and in pots outside.

In shape and ornamentation the labellum shows considerable variation. Two plants from Orewa Hill (CHR 141203, 23/10/1964, L. B. Moore) stand rather apart in having the tip definitely bilobed with a minute recurved mucro on the under side of the sinus. These features fit descriptions of M. biloba W. H. Nicholls in Vict. Nat., Melb. 66, 1949, 94, 93 fig. J–L, which Willis (Handbk Pl. Vict. 1962, 364) records as known in Victoria only by the type and one other collection, apparently also in N.S.W. Other characters are the narrowly acuminate tip of the dorsal sepal, poorly developed basal calli of the labellum, and wide horizontally extended column-wings. Collections at WELT from Whangarei, Chelsea and Mt Eden contain plants with rather similar fls but these have not been examined critically.