Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: "The Haunted Whare, near Waimarino (H. B. Matthews)". Lectotype: ?AK 108491C.

Plant c. 3–10–15 cm. tall at fl. Stem short, erect, smooth, mostly hidden by lvs at fl., internodes, at least uppermost, elongating in fr. Lvs us. 3–4, all much alike, us. overtopping fl.; lamina c. 4–9 × 1.5–2.5 cm., broad-elliptic to oblong, tip obtuse to broadly subacute, base merging into broadly winged, sheathing petiole. Fl. solitary; ovary us. erect. Dorsal sepal c. 2 cm. tall, erect then ± horizontal, shortly acuminate; lateral sepals diverging at a narrow angle, tips acuminate to shortly caudate, overtopping galea. Petals almost as long as dorsal sepal, acute. Labellum elliptic, tip narrowly obtuse, shortly recurved, ± cucullate. Column a little shorter than labellum; stigma broadly cordate, very prominent.

DIST.: N. Volcanic Plateau; Mt. Egmont; Kaimanawa Range; Honokawa, East Cape district.

Endemic.

Under high-altitude scrub.

FL. 12.

Hatch (T.R.S.N.Z. 77, 1949, 246) states: "Lectotype in the Auckland Museum, 'Haunted Whare', Mount Ruapehu, 1/1921, H. B. Matthews (this is one of the fruiting plants, from the tubers of which Matthews cultivated the specimens later described by Rogers as P. humilis)." This large specimen was, as stated by Hatch, not the one described by Rogers whose diagnosis begins "Planta robusta, perbrevis, 2–3 cm. alta. Folia . . . 0.5–2.5 cm. longa . . ." and was obviously drawn up from dwarfed garden-grown plants sent by Matthews in spirit. One of these latter, if extant, would make a more appropriate lectotype, though the presence of several isotypes leaves no doubt as to the application of the name. Rogers mentions seeing a photograph of a fruiting specimen with a stature of 11 cm., with lvs on well-marked petioles and lamina from 3.75–6 cm. long.

Hatch (T.R.S.N.Z. 75, 1945, 369-370) describes self-fertilisation, stressing that the column is erect, in contrast to that of P. banksii where the inclined column puts the anther out of alignment with the stigma. "Of the five hundred odd plants observed by the writer during 1942-5, every one set seed, whereas in the same locality P. banksii was just as consistently infertile."