Arthropodium candidum Raoul
A. reflexum Col. in T.N.Z.I. 18, 1886, 275.
A. ramulosum Col. in T.N.Z.I. 25, 1893, 337.
A. bulbosum Simpson in T.R.S.N.Z. 79, 1952, 419.
Type locality: "Akaroa ad sylvarum margines". Type: P? At K there is a specimen collected by Raoul at Akaroa.
Delicate summergreen plants forming small colonies; a conical tuber c. 10 × 6 mm. forms at the base of each annual shoot, sts connected to that of the previous year by a slender rhizome up to 10 cm. long. Lvs c. 10–30 cm. × 3–10 mm., linear, ± flaccid; midrib and nerves inconspicuous; sheath membr. Infl. us. exceeding lvs; peduncle very slender, often < panicle; panicle narrow, either simple and raceme-like or with a few slender laterals; main bracts lflike. Fls solitary or in uneven-aged groups of 2–3; pedicels 1–2 cm. long, pale above the joint. Per. c. 1 cm. diam., white; tepals acute, subequal or the outer slightly broader. Stamens much < tepals; anther-tails almost wholly adnate to filament, white. Capsule c. 3 × 3.5 mm., sulcate; valves keeled and shortly horned towards base. Seeds c. 6 in each locule, to 1.4 mm. long, black with a surface pattern of minute hexagons. n = 11.
DIST.: N., S. from c. lat. 37º southwards.
Forest floor and other shaded places.
FL. 11–1. FT. 1–2.
A. reflexum from "Shaded sides of mountain streams, Seventy-mile Bush, County of Waipawa; 1870–83: W.C." is represented by two sheets at K, and by two sheets at WELT.
A. ramulosum was based on a single plant grown on from a root from "a rocky spot near Mangatoro, south of Dannevirke, County of Waipawa; 1892: W.C." Cheeseman labelled WELT 24304 as type.
A. bulbosum is represented by 4 plants on the type sheet CHR 75703 "from plants in cultivation collected from sparse grassland at Wairoa Gorge, Nelson. Geo. Simpson and W. B. Brockie". A "co-type" sheet is dated Jan. 30, 1950.
A form with coppery-bronze foliage has long been in cultivation and is reported to come true from seed, Simpson (CHR 56433 and 112442) gathered this from Rough Peaks, Lake Wakatipu.
