Boring Pterostylis aff. montana aggregate also had a serious revision, after the Column found
three Nematoceras trilobum taxa were all none other than N. "tricraig". Sure enough, two well
separated sites produced similar taxa which had not previously been connected, causing a
further mental back-flip.

P. aff. montana "Little" from Littles Flat in the Kaweka's was the spitting image of P. aff. montana "Whakapapa".

A further delve through the colour slide archives turned up the original of this taxon, 39 year old Kodachromes of P. aff. montana "Blyth" herein abbreviated to P. "Blyth", from the Blyth Track, Ruapehu.

It was originally squeezed confusingly into the P. banksii var. patens file at a time when the Column was confident that all NZ orchids must have been discovered by then! How wrong can one be?

Then the Editor pointed out yet another example; Bruce Irwin's Pterostylis aff. montana "late"
(see bottom of this page) from Ruapehu in 1983, beautifully drawn, on p. 518 of the CD of all his drawings, complete with details of labellum sections, labellum appendage and column.

The distinctive curl at the tips of the lateral sepals doesn't feature here, possibly because they were crafted from a specimen pickled for a week but the long, twisted labellum with distinctive finger-like tip, is most certainly there.

Fig. 22 . Pterostylis "Blyth" on Kodachrome II from a bigger colony than usual for this taxon so two good flowers could be caught together.

By the Blyth Track, Ruapehu on
11 December 1968.

This is apparently an uncommon taxon, usually occurring in ones and twos at widely spaced sites all preferring shady, mossy, tracksides in subalpine beech forest. From the Column's archives, Blyth Track, Ruapehu (Fig.22) ±1,060m a.s.l. 11 Dec 1968; Little's Flat, (Fig.23) Kaweka's [J74:21, fig. 22], 1,060m a.s.l. 6 Dec 1999 and from J87:6,7, Hepi Tce., Whakapapa (Fig.24) 1,120m a.s.l. 5 Jan 2003.

Around the Whakapapa site, there were numerous colonies of P. aff. montana and each colony was marginally different from the others. The Column photographed two only that appeared to be more different than the rest. One from Hepi Terrace was P. "Blyth" the other from the Whakapapa Walk is depicted in J87:7 Fig. 2.

Allan Ducker's stereo footage including some of the other taxa, on video screen that night in the DoC Lodge, caused a protracted circular debate. Still neither Bruce nor the Column recognised the long nosed P. "Blyth". It is illustrated reversed in J87:7 Fig. 3, so the labellum there appears to twist to the left.

Beware! All NZ pterostylids with asymmetrical labella, have them twisting to the right.
The Aussie's have some twisting to the left - nothing to do with our political systems!

Fig. 23.  P. "Blyth" at Littles Flat in the
Kaweka's on 6 December 1999.

Typical are the curled ends of the lateral
sepals and finger-like extension to the
labellum, twisting to the right.  

Fig. 24.  P. "Blyth" under black beech by
Whakapapa Walk on 5 December 2003.

The whole plant shows grass like leaves on
a 130mm tall plant. The lichen on sticks
lying about, was inserted for effect.

Refer to Journal 87:7 for a reversed
close-up of the flower alone.

Distinguishing features of P. "Blyth": leaves are grass-like, up the stem , like P. graminea which doesn't occur in the subalpine. Dorsal sepal exceeds lateral petals by ±5mm, lateral sepals ±20mm, spreading ±90° like a small P. banksii, straight for the first ¾ then the filamentous tips uniquely curl forwards 180°-360°. Labellum is basically green; the end twists to the right ±15° like P. montana but uniquely, its darkest red midrib ridge, extends finger-like, ±2mm at the tip.

Due to the prevalence of P. aff. montana around the Central Plateau, field party participants often don't give these flowers due attention and they regard photographing them as a bit of a waste of precious time. That's the Column's excuse anyway for not getting essential details of the inner workings of P. "Blyth" at any of the three sites.

Fortunately Bruce had taken the trouble to get the details, completing the illustration of this taxon which highlights it from the wide range of P. aff. montana taxa and hybrids therein. There is a moral here somewhere; how about; treat all the boring ones like new species; perhaps they are.