Flora of New Zealand Series

Type sp.: G. sesamoides.

Raceme of few to many pedicellate fls; floral bracts short, scarious. Per. tubular with 5 fleshy lobes, ± split between the lateral sepals which stand uppermost; tube gibbous beneath labellum; petal lobes small and just within mouth of tube. Labellum included, adnate to gibbous part of tube, its free portion ± oblong with submedian longitudinal calli and undulate margins. Column us. long, very narrowly winged; anther terminal, erect then bending forward, pollen in angular granules; stigma broad, basal, hollow; rostellum represented by flap under anther. Plants terrestrial, non-green; rhizome elongated, sympodially branched, mycorrhizal, bulky and filled with starch, nodes bearing remnants of scale lvs. Lvs represented on erect stem only by short loose sheathing scales. About 15 spp., from Himalayas to Japan and southwards through Malaya to Australasia. One N.Z. sp. shared with Australia, the other 2 endemic and both with short columns.

Schlechter (Engl. Bot. Jb. 45, 1911, 409–410) gives a general account of the genus. Hatch has discussed the N.Z. spp. (T.R.S.N.Z. 77, 1949, 232–233, Pl. 16, 17; ibid. 82, 1954, 613–614, figs. B–D). McLennan (Aust. J. Bot. 7, 1959, 225–229) described G. sesamoides and its endophyte in Australia. Campbell has reported on rhizomes and associated fungi of all 3 N.Z. spp.: G. cunninghamii in T.R.S.N.Z. Bot. 1, 1962, 289–296; G. minor ibid. 2, 1963, 73–81; G. sesamoides ibid. 2, 1964, 237–246.

G. hectori Buchan. in T.N.Z.I. 19, 1887, 214 was described as having a stem "closely sheathed for ⅔ of its length by a long leaf" and Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 367) states that it "is shown by specimens in Mr Buchanan's herbarium to be a Prasophyllum, probably P. patens R. Br.".

Fig. 33. GASTRODIA. Lettering as in fig. 20, p. 103; Co = column. Swollen starchy rhizome at left. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X2R]