Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Lake Roundabout, Ashburton Valley. Type: CHR.

Plant at fl. mostly c. 3–15 cm. tall, occ. to 25 cm or more. Stem erect, fleshy. Lf overtopping raceme if undamaged but very commonly cropped short. Raceme rarely > 3 cm. long; fls 1–10, often widely spaced, especially on taller plants. Per. green. Dorsal sepal c. 2.5 mm. long, its margin evenly rounded and lacking recurved tip; lateral shorter, ± acute, deflexed, us. straight. Petals ± under dorsal sepal. Labellum oblong, only rarely narrowed at mid-length; tip us. squarely truncate, sts slightly emarginate, not apiculate; margin papillose, shallowly crenate, sts thickened but rarely undulate; anterior callus variously developed, verrucose; large basal calli squarish, flat rather than convex, us. continuous at the sides with narrow band of callus behind slit-like transverse furrow; labellum rather sharply deflexed to hang ± parallel to ovary. Base of column often broader than stigma.

DIST.: N., probably in central high country. S., widespread and locally abundant in Canterbury foothills; also in Marlborough, Nelson and Otago.

Tussock grassland, both damp and dry sites, apparently where soil is inclined to freeze in winter.

FL. 1–2.

This is the plant for which Hatch (T.R.S.N.Z. Bot.2, 1963, 187–188) uses the name M. magnadenia R. S. Rogers in Trans. roy. Soc. S. Aust. 54, 1930, 44.