Journal Number 107
February 2008

THE COLUMN

Diggers Valley Orchids
By Eric Scanlen

Fig. 27. Singularybas oblongus "early white top" by Gary, open on 29 Aug. 07, doesn't look too unusual and has no dentiform papillae (bed of prickles) inside the labellum.		Fig. 28. Singularybas oblongus "early white top" by Gary, in bud on 24 July 07, at Diggers Valley, its dorsal sepal, in late bud, is like a car boot lid.
Fig. 29. Singularybas oblongus sensu stricto, with pursed mouth for comparison, in bud in the Hunuas in Oct 1960. Note, edge of three penny bit and sepals that do not cross back behind the petals as they do in Nematoceras.		Fig. 30. Chiloglottis cornuta "khaki calli" also has a non-flowering, single leaved, juvenile form.

Chiloglottis cornuta "khaki calli", no joke, on 10 Oct. 07, in a large colony. No doubt the reader
is aware of specimens with darkest brown calli inside the labellum, plus the frequent alba form
with only green calli? Well this colony, under mature kanuka, by Gary's west boundary fence,
had no dark calli, no green calli, only khaki calli! See for yourself in Fig.31.

Otherwise the plants look normal except for unflowered juveniles with only one leaf! Fig.30, by
Kevin Matthews, from east of Kaitaia Airport, shows the layout of the calli. He too, has found
numerous single leaved juveniles.

Fig. 31. Chiloglottis cornuta "khaki calli" by Kevin Matthews from east of Kaitaia Airport showing calli layout.

Note that C. cornuta "khaki calli" is not restricted to the Kaitaia-Herekino area. At Awhitu, by Boiler
Gully Rd and 5.5 km away, in Kemps Road Reserve at Matakawau, the same single leaved juveniles
were amidst colonies of just-opening flowering plants also with the khaki calli, on 17 November.
The Column had to open one to check callus colour.

Back at Diggers Valley, a solitary, three leaved specimen, showed up in bud in Gary's colony.
His photo of it on 29 Oct 07, shows the three leaves quite clearly in Fig.32, after he'd carefully
cleared the kanuka brush which made the plant unusually tall at 135mm.

Three leaved ones have occasionally been reported, also in C. cornuta s.s. especially growing close
to normally three leaved Pterostylis humilis on the central plateau where their unflowered plants
then become indistinguishable.

		Fig. 32. A rare, three leaved Chiloglottis cornuta "khaki calli". Lanky, due to removal of kanuka brush support to show that the three leaves definitely come from one stem.

Incidentally, the Column lectured a NOG field party in the Waitarere Pinus radiata Forest (on 10 Oct 01)
that C. cornuta had only dark or green calli, never in-betweens. So the first thing to show up there was
one with green calli at the front and khaki at the back! Its photo has no depth of field - yet it was from
a film camera - so it is not shown here.

That forest has since been harvested so "khaki calli" may not exist there now. Has anyone spotted the
likes of these khaki ones with single leaved juveniles, elsewhere in NZ? Do please let the Editor know if
you have.

On 9 Oct 07, two twin flowered Stegostyla atradenia (Fig.33) were in a colony of about 10 plants, also
right beside the track but at the eastern boundary. Twin S. atradenia were a first for the Column in 50
years of orchid hunting but word is that they do show up elsewhere from time to time. Examining the
peduncle with the X20 lens, revealed crowded, colourless hairs ±0.3mm long by say 0.02mm diameter
with red glands atop at ±0.025mm diameter. But the unbrowsed flowers bore testimony to the
efficiency of the microscopic hairs in keeping insect larvae, slugs and snails at bay.
The leaf (not the Lycopodiella) on the contrary, was virtually bald.

Fig. 33. Twin flowered Stegostyla atradenia, 9 Oct 07, opens one flower at a time. This has two ragged rows of darkest red disk calli extending right down the midlobe, enough to separate it from the similar Aussie S. iridescens with four ragged rows of calli. The Lycopodiella leaf is purely for scale.		Fig. 34. Caladenia "speckles" by Gary with its single marginal callus at the base of the labellum midlobe, varies somewhat from the Te Paki and Kaimaumau specimens, notably in having two flowers and, inside the dorsal sepal, only pink smudges in lieu of the speckles for which Allan Ducker tagged it.

Allan Ducker's Caladenia "speckles" only different, in moss, at arm's length from the back deck -
that's the Column's kind of orchid hunting! Gary's photo of 27 Oct 07 (Fig.34). Two flowers instead
of the usual one and less dark red on the column back. The namesake speckles inside the dorsal sepal
are smudged but the solitary marginal callus shows at the base of the labellum midlobe.

This is its southernmost location to date. Gary could feel justified in tagging it separately if he felt so
inclined. Several other Caladenia were also in bud on 10 Oct.

Those multicoloured, multiformed Orthoceras, reported in J106, will be all at Gary's and Asta's finger
tips, later in the season.

Thelymitra, the Column's target genus, were of course late this year at Herekino, but varying leaf forms,
in bud, promised many and varied taxa. Acianthus and Corybas cheesemanii in seed, Cyrtostylis oblonga
in leaf, Pterostylis banksii in flower, spent Diplodium alobulum and five well known epiphytes, rounded
out a nice array in a 2½ day stay, before Hughie sent her down and stalled proceedings.

So you can see why the Column advises those who get confused with new taxa definitely to stay away
from the Forest Homestay and leave it for the connoisseurs to gloat over.