Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: "Mangonui County, low hills between Lake Tongonge and the coast; R. H. Matthews". Type: Cooper (Rec. Auck. Inst. Mus. 3, 1949, 402) lists the type as missing.

Plant at fl. c. 10–15 cm. tall. Lf flexuous or spirally twisted round stem; sheath broad, finely and closely puberulous, as is stem immediately below; lamina 3–6 cm. long, linear and very much narrower than sheath. Infl. 1–2-fld. Per. c. 8–14 mm. long, dark purplish blue with darker veins. Sepals, petals and labellum alike, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, acute or shortly acuminate. Column short; anther largely exposed; connective prolonged; column-arms ± oblong, thick and fleshy, neither lobed nor ciliate, bright yellow; post-anther lobe lacking; small calli sts present across back of anther between bases of column-arms.

DIST.: N. Vicinity of Kaitaia.

FL. 8–9–11.

Hatch (T.R.S.N.Z. 79, 1952, 392) gives as lectotype AK 25890, Lake Tangonge, 9.1911, H. B. Matthews, but this can at best rank as neotype, since the collecting date is later than the date of publication of the sp.

T. matthewsii is apparently known in N.Z. only from a few specimens, all gathered from approximately the same locality, and none found in recent years. T. daltonii Rogers in Trans. roy. Soc. S. Aust. 54, 1930, 42 has been listed as a synonym. T. matthewsii is recorded in S. Australia by Eichler (Addenda to Suppl. to Black's Fl. S. Austral. 1966).