Flora of New Zealand Series

Serapias regularis Banks et Sol. ex Forst. f. Prodr.  1786,  59.

Type locality: Not mentioned in protologue but given by G. Forster Prodr. 1786 as "Noua Zeelandia" and so generally accepted. Type: ? There are Forster specimens at GOET and Forster's drawings at BM are labelled Q. Charlotte Sd. Also recorded from Australia, Tasmania, and N. Caledonia.

Plant at fl. c. 5–50 cm. tall. Lf c. 10–20 mm. wide, strap-shaped, often ± ridged, especially abaxially, thick but flaccid. Infl. c. 1–10–(20) -fld. Per. c. 8–15 mm. long, ± reddish green externally, internally us. white, occ. pink, without stripes or spots. Dorsal sepal slightly broader than laterals. Petals and labellum alike, ovate, subacute. Column-arms terete, us. bent inward; cilia very ∞, white, short and crowded in globose masses lying ± under post-anther lobe; post-anther lobe overtopping anther, us. dark and smooth above middle and ± yellowish on the cucullate semicircular margin.

DIST.: N., S., St., Ch., A.

On rocks, banks and open ground, from maritime to subalpine sites.

Fl. 10–2.

Probably the commonest and most widespread N.Z. sp. Cheeseman quotes as synonyms: T. forsteri Swartz in K. svenska Vet. Akad. Handl. 21, 1800, 228 : T. stenopetala Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. 1, 1844, 69; T. nemoralis Col. in T.N.Z.I. 17, 1885, 249; T. purpureo-fusca Col. in T.N.Z.I. 17, 1885, 249; T. cornuta Col. in T.N.Z.I. 20, 1888, 206. T. alba Col. in T.N.Z.I. 18, 1886, 272 he reduces to varietal rank as T. longifolia var. alba (Col.) Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 339. Herb. Colenso at WELT contains no specimen determined as any one of these 4 spp., but descriptions suggest that all belong either here or in T. pauciflora R. Br.

T. aristata Lindl., as figured by Hatch (T.R.S.N.Z. 79, Pl. 79–80), falls into a broad concept of T. longifolia, differing mostly in its pinkish per. and cilia; the column, though us. figured as smooth and rounded, was originally described, for the group in which T. aristata was placed, as "emarginatus, margine vel totam superficiem glandulosus".

Fertilization in T. longifolia is described by Cheeseman (T.N.Z.I. 13, 1881, 291–296).