Flora of New Zealand Series

Original locality: Near Port Jackson, N.S.W. Brown's notebook gives: "Loc. Nat. in ericetis prope Sydney, Sepr. 1, 1803". Type: ? No recent description of holotype or lectotype has been seen. Recorded for all Australian States except W. Australia.

Plant at fl. c. 15–100 cm. tall. Tuber as in P. colensoi. Stem erect, ± fleshy. Lf often overtopping raceme; lamina terete, acute. Raceme of few to many fls, evenly spaced, all ± fleshy. Per. yellowish-green. Dorsal sepal c. 6–8 mm. long, broad-ovate, concave; laterals slightly longer, narrow-oblong, us. free to base, margins thin, tip often minutely cucullate and appearing bidentate. Petals little shorter, more delicate. Labellum longer, narrowed at base to very short, stiff claw, ovate, ± sharply bent at about midlength at about right angle; margin entire, us. undulate; callus a rather smooth-margined band just passing over the bend but not extending into the broad, pale, membr., subacute tip. Lateral processes of column oblong, ± falcate, as tall as rostellum. Anther sessile, definitely overtopped by rostellum. Stigma more than its own height above column-base.

DIST.: N. Scattered localities, both lowland and upland, north of c. lat. 39º30’.

Bog and wet places.

FL. 12–1.

In Australia several spp. have been differentiated from P. patens retaining "the original name for the widely-distributed Port Jackson type, whence Brown derived his first specimen" (Rogers Trans. roy. Soc. S. Aust. 33, 1909, 202). Willis's key (Handbk Pl. Vict. 1962, 370-375) demonstrates some of the characters in use to distinguish between closely related spp.

P. odoratum Rogers in Trans. roy. Soc. S. Aust. 33, 1909, 209, Pl. 9B was described as differing from P. patens in habit, scent, and sepals of about equal length, little exceeding petals. P. suttonii Rogers et B. Rees in Proc. roy. Soc. Vict. n.s. 25, 1912, 112, t. 6 a–c is the name used for N.Z. plants by Hatch (T.R.S.N.Z. 76, 1947, 291); type locality: Buffalo Plateau, Vict.

Willis (loc. cit. 1962, 375) quotes under P. patens  Hooker's t. 109 fig. B. (Fl. Tasm. 2, 1858). Hooker (ibid. 11–12) found himself "quite unable to distinguish all states" of the subject of this plate, which he labelled P. truncatum, Lindl., from that of his t. 111 which bears the name P. patens, Br. N.Z. specimens examined, from which the above description is drawn up, approach t. 109B, while t. 111 shows some of the features attributed to P. suttonii.

Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 346) says of P. patens : "Easily distinguished from P. colensoi by the much greater size, larger paler flowers, and longer lip, which has a much more conspicuous recurved lamina, the adnate plate [callus] not extending to the tip. The lateral lobes of the column are also much longer."