Flora of New Zealand Series

Nematoceras triloba Hook. f. Fl. N.Z.  1,  1853,  250.

Corysanthes triloba (Hook. f.) Hook. f. Handbk N.Z. Fl.  1864,  265.

Original localities: "Northern and Middle Islands; damp woods, East Coast and interior, Colenso." Type: K(?).

Plant at fl. c. 2–5 cm. tall. Green lf distinctly petiolate; lamina c. 1–2.5 cm. diam., reniform to orbicular, often wider than long and with small median apiculate lobe, base broadly cordate, texture hardly fleshy. Floral bract rarely as long as ovary. Dorsal sepal short, spathulate, obtuse and concave to cucullate at broad tip, arched over top of labellum; lateral sepals long, filiform, greatly exceeding labellum. Petals similar to lateral sepals but us. much shorter. Labellum auriculate at base, lamina very abruptly deflexed, broad and rounded, margin finely denticulate and often incurled except at its lower edge, inner surface retrorsely papillose.

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

Endemic.

Under forest or scrub.

FL. 6–12.

Corysanthes hypogaea Col. in T.N.Z.I. 16, 1884, 336. Original localities: "Among mosses, steep cliffy sides of dry hills, Fagus forest near Norsewood, Waipawa County; 1880 (plentifully but barren); 1882 (a few capsules long past flowering); and 1883, September, in flower: W.C." Type: Not found. While the description applies almost entirely to C. trilobus it seems likely that, as the specific epithet suggests, C. cryptanthus grew in association with it. Colenso observes: "while its one small leaf is spread flat on its mossy bed, its delicate flower is 1–2 inches below the surface, and never appears above during its flowering, though afterwards (in a few observed instances) its capsule is shown just above the surface . . .". The green, purple and dark blood-red colours of the fls are those of C. trilobus, but the margin of the labellum "2–3 deep laciniations or ragged lobes below, with the sides much cut and jagged and incurved" could have been described from C. cryptanthus.