Corybas cheesemanii
(T.F. Cheeseman, curator of the Auckland Museum,
AK, for 50 years)

Easily identified by the 2 closed conical spurs at the base of the labellum. While this is normally a green leaved plant with flowers borne above the surface, it becomes on occasion saprophytic, loses its leaf and chlorophyll, and the flower does not rise above the surface litter. In this condition it can be confused with C.cryptanthus, so look for the conical spurs.

Distribution: endemic - Three Kings Is. North Id.: and the Sounds/Nelson district of the South Id.: Chatham Is.
In the north it prefers mature manuka/kanuka scrub, or taraire forest.

Flowers: May-August - self pollinated.

Corybas carsei
(Harry Carse, schoolteacher / botanist)

Superficially similar to C.rotundifolius, it is a much smaller plant, confined to Empodisma bogs and readily identified in the field by the cleft apex to the dorsal sepal. It is very close to the Australian C.fordhamii which grows in a similar habitat.

Distribution: endemic - currently only known from Waikato bogs where it is being monitored by the DoC.
It originally occurred in bogs at Kaitaia, Cambridge, and Tauhei.

Flowers: September - insect and/or self pollinated.

Corybas rotundifolius
(round leaved)

Similar to, but larger than C. carsei, and lacks the cleft dorsal sepal.

Distribution: endemic - North Id: now confined to scrub and light forest between the North Cape and Warkworth; specimens in herbaria suggest that it once extended much further south.

Flowers: July - self pollinated.

Corybas cryptanthus
(hidden flower)

This plant lacks chlorophyll and an expanded leaf, and the relatively large flower does not usually appear above the moss and litter in which the rhizome lives. Consequently, unless discovered by accident (such as being sat on for lunch), the first indication of the species' presence is the tall, leafless, red-flecked seeding peduncle.

Some flowers however, lack the red pigment, in which case the peduncles are also colourless, but always of course without an expanded basal leaf. This can be confusing when the plant grows, as it sometimes does, with C.cheesemanii. Minute rudimentary tubers are present in the axils of the rhizome bracts, but seldom develop. Bruce Irwin discovered that the petals in this species are longer and more robust than the lateral sepals, reversing the normal procedure.

When the flower is fertilised the elongating peduncle, in order to protect the developing ovary, bows its head so to speak and shoves upwards with it shoulders, straightening out once it is clear of the clutter.(cf beans and Podocarps). In the other Corybas species, which open their flowers above the surface and are protected in the bud by both the floral bract and the folded leaf, the peduncle grows straight up.

Distribution: endemic - Three Kings Is. North and
South Is.

Flowers: July-August - self pollinated.

Corybas oblongus
(the oblong leaf)

Easily distinguished by the pale fimbriate edge to the reddish labellum, and the oblong apiculate leaf which in mature plants has reddish veins on the underside. The juvenile is usually 2-leaved and this character is often carried over to mature plants.

Distribution: endemic - Three Kings Is: North, South, Stewart, Chatham, Auckland and Campbell Is.

Flowers: October-January - self pollinated.