Flora of New Zealand Series

Raceme us. of few fls each with a distinct pedicel; floral bracts us. exceeding ovary. Per. glab.; dorsal sepal uppermost, broad, concave; lateral sepals subsimilar, only slightly shorter; petals much shorter, broadly falcate. Labellum mostly > sepals, sessile, broadly elliptic, the greater part of the inner surface us. bearded with long, capillary, strongly coloured processes which also fringe the margin, the processes us. shorter near the base and often lacking towards the tip, leaving a narrow ligulate apex unadorned. Column short and wide with broad wings flanking the circular stigma; anther terminal, papillose, pollinia 2 per cell, pollen finely granular; rostellum short. Plants terrestrial, glab.; tubers ovoid, new one produced at base of parent plant. Lf sheathing at base, narrow-linear, channelled, sts absent; cauline bracts few, short, us. foliaceous. Genus of c. 11 spp., mostly Australian, but recorded also from New Guinea and New Caledonia. The 3 spp. known in N.Z. occur also in Australia.

Vegetatively the N.Z. spp. are not easily distinguished from one another or from some spp. of Thelymitra. The labellar processes are not uniseriate hairs but may be regarded as greatly elongated, narrow-based, very slender calli, some of the largest being distinctly parenchymatous in structure. Tumid projecting cells are presumably those referred to as "glandular", and these probably give the "metallic-lustrous" appearance mentioned in some descriptions.

Fig. 25. CALOCHILUS. Lettering as in fig. 20, p. 103. Base of one of the long processes on labellum-margin shown enlarged. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X2H]