Flora of New Zealand Series

Terrestrial herb; stolons root-like, tufted, some with bladders 1-2 mm diam. Lvs few, usually 0 at flowering; radical lvs 4-8 mm long, spathulate, entire. Scape filiform, wiry, to c. 10 cm long, erect, (1)-2-3-flowered; bracts several, filiform. Fls subsessile or shortly pedicellate. Calyx lobes broadly suborbicular, ± unequal. Corolla white, pale mauve or light purple; upper lip nearly 2× length of calyx, ± emarginate; lower lip 6-8 mm wide, with centre arched upward and sides reflexed from the narrow elliptic palate; spur c. = lower lip, usually deflexed. Capsule subglobose.

N.: from the Kaitaia area southwards to near Wanganui.

Also indigenous to Australia.

Rare and local, lowland swampy places.

FL Nov-Jan.

U. delicatula Cheeseman is not considered distinct from U. lateriflora.

The above description is taken partly from Curtis, W. M., The Student's Flora of Tasmania 3: 536-537 (1967), because N.Z. material is inadequate.