Dendrobium cunninghamii Lindl.
D. lessonii Col. in T.N.Z.I. 15, 1883, 326.
Type locality: Whangaroa. Type: ?
Plant to 150 cm. long, often much less. Stems cane-like, tending to be locally thickened towards base and there to 7 mm. diam. in large plants; lateral branches ∞, coming off at wide angle, ± drooping; bare parts mostly c. 2 mm. diam., bright yellow and polished. Lf-sheaths tubular, minutely papillose, overlapping, covering all younger stems; lamina c. 3–5 cm. × 3 mm., narrow-linear, dark at joint with sheath. Rhizome stem-like, giving off ± branched roots. Infls 1-6-fld, produced a few nodes back from lfy tip, as short, slender laterals; floral bracts tubular, short, inconspicuous; pedicel very slender, longer than ovary. Per. c. 2–2.5 cm. diam., glab., white, lip and column us. partly rose-pink to purplish or green. Sepals elliptic, spreading, tips ± reflexed; laterals connate under labellum and adnate to column-base, giving characteristic shape to bud. Petals slightly broader. Labellum shorter, distinctly 3-lobed; lateral lobes small, often coloured, inclined to stand parallel to one another; mid-lobe white, broad, subacute, minutely crenulate; disc with 4–5 pale-coloured, low, longitudinal ridges terminating just above short claw and near to a coloured knob (nectary) at end of column-foot. Column about as long as its foot, cylindric, very narrowly winged.
DIST.: N., S., St.
Well-lit tree-trunks and branches, and rupestral.
FL. 12–2–(4–6).
The specimen Lindley described was from A. Cunningham, collected by R. Cunningham in the North Island near the sea. A. Cunningham (Compan. bot. Mag. 2, 1837, 377) says: "At Wangaroa, growing on trees, Pohutu-kaua (Metrosideros tomentosa A. Rich.), &c. ـ1834, R. Cunningham."
D. lessonii. "Hab. In forest, Norsewood, Hawke's Bay district, North Island, high up in the forks of pine trees (Podocarpus spicata), and sometimes on the ground in dry stony hills under Fagus trees, flowering in November; 1879-1882; also among rocks near the sea at Cape Turakirae (the south head of Palliser Bay), 1845–6; W.C." In Herb. Colenso at WELT are many sheets labelled by Cheeseman as "Dendrobium cunninghamii Lindl. Norsewood, H.B. Type of D. lessonii Col."
Thomson (T.N.Z.I. 11, 1879, 419) records observations on pollination.
