Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Bay of Islands "locis siccis". Type: ?.

Plant at fl. to c. 40 cm. tall. Lf to 5–15 mm. wide, ± strap-like. Infl. 1–20-fld. Per. c. 10–15 mm. long, between pink and blue, without stripes or spots. Sepals, petals and labellum subsimilar, smoothly elliptic. Column-arms terete or plano-convex in T.S., often projecting forward; cilia ∞, white, arising from sides, back and top of arm, mostly standing above post-anther lobe but rarely stiffly erect; post-anther lobe tall, barely to quite overtopping anther, us. dark blue towards top, margin ± yellow, mostly inclined forwards, often thickened and slightly incurved but not hooded, sharp-angled in front and there sts produced into small, ± inturned horns.

DIST.: N.

Common in parts of Auckland district, in scrub and along roadsides.

FL. 11–12.

Berggren's diagnosis reads: "T. caule strictiusculo, floribus roseis, columnae apice trilobae lobo intermedio truncato-bifido margine integerrimo lobulis acutis incurvatis, lobis lateralibus longe porrectis apice penicillatis, antherae apiculo exserto". He points out that his sp. is distinct from T. longifolia Forst. which has the intermediate lobe of the column cucullate and longer than the rotundate-plumose lateral lobes, and from T. ixioides Smith in which the per. is spotted and the intermediate lobe of the column is fimbriate or dentate. Berggren's figures of side and front views of column are highly stylized.

Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 338, 340) restricted the name T. intermedia to small, slender, 3–4-fld plants, while Hatch stressed the thin white cilia in making the combination T. longifolia var. intermedia (Bergg.) Hatch in T.R.S.N.Z. 79, 1952, 397, Pl. 80 J.

The name T. intermedia is here applied to plants with fls like those figured by Hatch T.R.S.N.Z. 79, 1952, Pl. 78, J–M, the figures based on drawings by J. B. Irwin of specimens from Waitakere Ra.: these are considered to be wrongly determined as T. aemula. (See Moore, N.Z. J. Bot. 6, 1969, 479–481). The margin of the post-anther lobe, though us. denticulate, may be entire as described for T. intermedia, and this plant occurs near the type locality of T. intermedia. Very similar fls are shown in a colour photograph under the much older name T. aristata in Gray's Victorian Native Orchids 1966, p. 51. T. aristata Lindl. Gen. and Sp. orch. Pl. 1840. 521 has us. been illustrated with a strong hooded column (e.g. Green in Vict. Nat., Melb. 46, 1930, Pl. 8; Hatch loc. cit. 1952, Pl. 79 M, N) and its precise limits in Australia and its relation to T. longifolia seem uncertain.