Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Australia. Known from N.S.W., Victoria, S. Australia and Tasmania.

Plant small, c. 2–10 cm. tall at fl. Stem ± hidden by lfy bracts. Rosette lvs ∞, c. 5–15 × 5–12 mm.; lamina ovate, not clearly distinct from broadly winged petiole, firm-textured, bluish green; cauline lvs smaller, sheathing. Fls (1)–2–7, each with a sheathing floral bract; per. bluish green with pale stripes. Dorsal sepal 5–10 mm. tall, broad, apiculate; lateral sepals little shorter, almost completely connate into a flat lamina bidentate at tip, strongly deflexed in fully open fl. Petals just shorter than dorsal sepal, the anterior margin quite smooth. Labellum short, broad, obtuse, produced backwards into a smoothly rounded appendage from which a thick median knob juts forward. Column short, broad; wings broader than long, ciliate over most of their free margins; stigma oblong.

DIST.: S. Known from various places in Canterbury and to Central Otago, mostly in foothills and intermontane basins.

Shingly open places as on river terraces in tussock grassland.

FL. 10–1.

First recognized in N.Z. by H. Talbot near Springfield, Canterbury, in 1950-1951 (Hatch T.R.S.N.Z. 80, 1953, 325, t. 73; Irwin, Bull. Wellington bot. Soc. No. 26, 1953, 30–31). P. mutica and P. cycnocephala are of very similar habit and may be found growing together. P. cycnocephala can always be distinguished by the knob on the labellum; its bluish green colour is matched in some plants of P. mutica, but plants with brownish lvs and fls seem always to belong to the latter sp.