Journal Number 105
November 2007

Notes etc

Jeremy Rolfe has a small colony of Corybas cheesemanii, in the bush above his Stokes Valley
property, with elongated dorsal sepals, and even an albino bud.

The July issue of The Kalhari, the ANOS Kabi (Queensland) group 's "message stick", contained photographs
by Graham Corbin, its editor, of Acianthus fornicatus and Corybas barbarae (white form).

They are reproduced below with permission. And aren't they remarkably similar to A. sinclairii and
C. cheesemanii? - Ed.

Associate Professor Rod Peakall at the School of Botany and Zoology, Australian National University in
Canberra has a stunning set of photographs of insects pollinating native orchids
(see http://www.anu.edu.au/BoZo/orchid_pollination/).

He has given his permission for us to reprint his photo of the male wasp pollinator Neozeleboria
cryptoides on the labellum of the orchid Chiloglottis trapeziformis. (see page 14)  

The wasp is carrying pollinia removed during pseudocopulation with a previous flower.
The callus structures on the labellum mimic the flightless female of the wasp pollinator.

Dr Peakall 's work was recognised recently in a feature in the prestigious Nature (22 Feb 07):
"The flower of seduction: Heidi Ledford looks at how dishonesty gives orchids the evolutionary edge".

Ichthyostomum pygmaeum at Day's Bay, Wellington 16 July 2007.   The ostensibly bivalved capsule, as big as the pseudobulb, still containing some of the seed granules that are otherwise scattered over the vegetation below it.

So you didn't think there were any Arabian wild orchids?
Neither did I.

Look at: http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200606/orchid.arabia.htm
where Eric Hansen (author of The orchid thief) writes about them.

On 25 July 07 Kevin Matthews sent the mirror-image shot of back-to-back Anzybas rotundifolius
from the back of his farm.

He wrote, "Anzybas rotundifolius flowers are very slow to open fully. Some have differing intensities of the
red factor. They start off as a port red (middle photo) and it would appear the colour dilutes from some of
the labellum as the flower progresses (right photo) taken on 17 June of a close neighbour to that shown in
the middle photo, and only a few days ahead in flowering time (that was 39 days ago).

It gives you some indication of the time these flowers continue to last and slowly develop before I guess
they are ready to be pollinated. This would to some degree explain why they are sparse - a lot of bug and
bird muncher exposure time!

I also noticed that a large proportion of Anzybas leaf are not going to produce flower; I guess they are
building energy for next season - it must be quite draining on the plant sustaining a flower over that
long time frame.

Some have a very acute apex to the labellum (right photo), also varying lengths to the dorsal sepal -
some rounded, some pointed and recurved into the labellum."

Gael Donaghy emailed (9 July 07), "Found this in the weekend up the Coromandel. 
One plant on an Olearia rani and about 7 plants underneath on a punga root. 

We have walked the track many times and never seen it, although it 's probably 3 years since we have
been there.  We took it to show Bruce last night, and he doesn 't recognise it as any cultivated one he
has seen. 

I thought it might be a be a wilding Dendrobium kingianum, but comparing it to similar size plants from
our garden, the Coromandel plant has leaves which are more rounded and a different green, and pseudobulbs
which are shorter, more swollen and grooved. The longest leaf was 2.5cm. Bruce compared it to Bulbophyllum
tuberculatum, but it has two leaves per pseudobulb and no tubercules."

Bruce Irwin wrote shortly afterwards, "Gael and Graeme brought round a small clump of a strange orchid.
It was clearly fighting for life: a well grown plant may appear quite different.

At first glance it looked very like Adelopetalum tuberculatum, in other words a Bulbophyllum, but most
plants carried two leaves.

I enclose photocopy of my laboured sketches. The plants were badly chewed by insects and the bracts
sheathing the pseudobulbs eroding away. The notes scribbled on the print may help identify the plant."

Kevin Matthews emailed (30 June), "I had a very successful day in the Ahipara area ... before the weather
closed in. This early flowering Nematoceras ˜pygmy ' (photo below) was very abundant in a given area,
along with rampant Diplodium alobula and Acianthus galore. Eric tells me the nearest known site for this
form of Nematoceras is Bream Trail 180km away.

I had the chance to inspect many flowers which showed some variance in the ragged labellum and colour,
some flowers sat on the leaf, some below and some above. Some were still in early bud while other leaf
showed no sign of flowering.

The dorsal sepal tip is generally rounded while a few were sporting a slight cleft. Can you comment on
the fine hairs within the labellum walls and below the labellum cleft? I have not read any reference to this
for Nematoceras .... The fine hair is not easy to capture, but you can see it below the labellum cleft and a
shining line of white hairs on the left (left photo below).

The hairs are more or less dispersed over the inner walls of the labellum." Kevin also sent photographs
and specimens of a spot at the back of his farm where there is a large population of D. trullifolium, "but
I had never noticed the 2 colonies of this copper variation. The flowers tend to be smaller than the green
form and the lateral sepal filaments are less erect (right photo below)".

Molloybas cryptanthus has been found sporadically over the last dozen or so years along a ridge
near Wellington, under beech, but with kanuka always present too. It was in bud on 17 July 07, and
when I returned on 15 August it was in full flower. Immature plants appear as short white threads - Ed.

www.publish.csiro.au:80/nid/18/pid/5365.htm is an interesting website.

It 's Australian orchid genera: an information and identification system, which presents the current
status of orchid taxonomy in the form of an illustrated interactive key. All 192 genera of Australian orchids
are included, capturing the results of recent revisions affecting Australian Orchidaceae.

"This powerful tool ensures an easy-to-use means of identifying an orchid to generic level using
whatever information is available to you. The 127 characters cover morphology - floral parts, fruit,
leaves, stems and pseudobulbs - and geographic information. Interpretation of characters is assisted
with help notes and images. Identification is assisted using a page of annotated images illustrating unique
flower structures."

www.anbg.gov.au/cpbr/cd-keys/orchidkey/html/bibliography.html has an excellent list
of publications relating to the taxonomy of Australian orchids.

In a paper published in June 2006, Hopper and Brown upheld the generic rank of Paracaleana on the basis
of its divergent pollination syndrome (sexual deception of male Thynnid wasps compared with pollination
of Caleana by male sawflies), recent DNA sequence data demonstrating monophyly, and nomenclatural
stability.

They recognised 13 species in Australia, ten of them new. [Hopper SD, Brown AP. Australia 's wasp-
pollinated flying duck orchids revised (Paracaleana: Orchidaceae). Australian Systematic Botany 2006;
19(3): 211 - 244].

Hmmm - no Thynnid wasps in New Zealand, so our Rotorua Paracaleana minor must be a selfer - Ed.