Flora of New Zealand Series

Bagnisia hillii Cheesem. in Kew Bull. for  1908 1908, 420.

Type locality: Tasmania, vicinity of Hobart. Type: MEL.

Plant glab., reddish or pinkish to white in all parts; roots smooth, c. 1-1.5 mm. diam., branching at intervals of c. 1-2 cm. and giving off at almost every fork an unbranched, ± erect stem 5-20 mm. long. Scale lvs few, ovate, acute, the largest (us. the 3 just below fl.) to 5 × 2 mm. Fl. c. 15 mm. long, solitary, terminal, mostly red. Per.-tube c. 10 × 8 mm., long-turbinate, translucent; outer lobes c. 4 × 1 mm., narrow-triangular, erect or sts reflexed, in mature fl. narrower than the fenestrae between inner lobes; inner lobes c. 4-5 × 2.5 mm., arching inwards and firmly connate above to form a mitre with broad fenestrae in its sides, the projecting keel of each inner lobe produced into a free appendage that varies from a short subula to a well-developed process several mm. long. Stamens scarcely visible from outside, pendent from the short, us. red annulus; free filaments very short, incurved; anthers broader and connate into a pale tube that reaches more than half way down the per.-tube; pollen sacs very small, widely separated, near upper limit of tube; connectives delicately membr. and elaborately lobed, the free margin with a long median hair between 2 triangular teeth; behind this hangs a spathulate anther-appendage, ciliolate on its free margin. Nectaries 6, below the anthers, each one lying on the line of junction of 2 adjacent connectives, and enclosed within its own membr. pouch. Ovary short-turbinate, c. 1.5 × 2 mm., upper surface slightly concave; style stout, c. 1 mm. long; stigmas truncate-obovate, shortly bilobed; ovules with long funicles, crowded on stalked placentae and filling the upper part of the ovary. Fr. fleshy, the upper portion becoming thin and transparent and then disintegrating to expose the brown seeds.

DIST.: N. Known only from few localities: Opepe, near Taupo—various collections from 1903 to 1966; Taurewa, 10 miles north of Mt Ruapehu, R. H. Steele, Feb. 1966; Tongariro, near Ketetahi Springs, G. H. Cunningham, 1942; Pirongia, R. Bell, 1962-63; Trounson Park kauri forest, N. Auckland, W. B. Silvester, 1963.

Known also from several localities in Victoria.

Humus layer of forest floor.

FL. 11-1.

Bagnisia hillii. Type locality: Opepe. Type: Parts of the original gathering are at AK and at BM.

McLennan (Aust. J. Bot. 6, 1958, 25-37) describes an endophytic mycorrhiza, regarding the association as a true symbiosis: "The absence of root hairs and the presence of hyphal filaments entering the plant from the soil suggest that these [organic] materials are obtained from the soil by the fungus." She also discusses the nature of the subterranean axes and illustrates their characteristic root anatomy. Campbell (T.R.S.N.Z. Bot. 3, 1968, 209-211) discusses the sp. as it occurs in 2 N.Z. localities and describes an associated fungus which also infects adjacent roots of some forest trees.

N.Z. plants appear to match those from Australia, even to minute details of the stamens (not all of which are adequately shown in Cheeseman's Pl. 191). In two respects they differ from Jonker's description: (1) the inner per.-lobes in all N.Z. collections examined are not merely connivent and easily separated at the apex, but are truly connate, forming a solid roof for the mitre, as figured and described by Coleman (Vict. Nat., Melb. 52, 1936, 163, 166). This throws doubt on the validity of Sect. Rodwaya Schlechter in which "inner perianth-lobes [are] bent inwards so that the tops are touching, tops of inner lobes sometimes slightly connate", and provides a closer link with Sect. Sarcosiphon. (2) The apical appendages vary in length from fl. to fl. as well as increasing with age of fl. but they are always present, and in most fls are much longer than those shown in Cheeseman's Pl. 191. Coleman (loc. cit.) shows both short and long appendages for her Victorian plants. On this score N.Z. plants would fall into Geomitra in Jonker's key to Tribe Thismieae, instead of into Thismia, which is stated to be "without appendages at the apex". This raises the question of maintaining Geomitra to accommodate a single sp. "once collected" in Sarawak.