Journal Number 107
February 2008

BOOK REVIEW

By David McConachie

Wild Orchids of the lower North Island, Field guide.
By Peter de Lange, Jeremy Rolfe, John Sawyer and Ian St. George.
Published by Department of Conservation, 2007. ISBN 978-0-478-14222-8

Peter de Lange is the primary author and John Sawyer, the guiding force behind this publication. Jeremy Rolfe and Ian St. George round out the quartet of authors. The area it covers includes the entire Wellington Conservancy, excluding the Chatham Islands, and is extended on its northern margin up to the southern bank of the Manawatu River as far north as Dannevirke before angling out to the coast.

This field guide contains 72 out of 106 orchid taxa recognised by de Lange et al., in the New Zealand indigenous vascular plant checklist published in 2006. In the introductory chapter there is an acknowledgement of the diversity of opinion about the appropriate orchid classification and nomenclature to use for New Zealand orchids. The nomenclature used in the book follows that proposed in the latest papers by Jones, Clements and Molloy published from 2002 onwards. This varies from that used by Ian St. George in his annual list, the latest being published in NZNOJ 106, December 2007. There was also a decision not to use tag names, instead they are included in species aggregates.

The book consists of four sections viz., Introduction, Orchid conservation, Wild orchids of the lower North Island, and the Field Guide proper, which has two subsections: How to use this field guide followed by the alphabetically arranged species descriptions.

In the section on Orchid conservation there is a general review of Management objectives which "involve ensuring all indigenous species continue to survive in the wild throughout their known range". This is followed by "Threats to orchids", which include collection of plants, vegetation succession and competition, habitat destruction, tree senescence (for epiphytic orchids) and animal browsing.

Then there is a look at "Management requirements", the options in this subsection are listed in no particular order but include surveying and monitoring, database management, legal protection of habitat, plant and animal control.

The section finishes talk about "Sites of national significance". These are areas we would call GLOS and the authors call species-rich orchid areas, which are areas "… that, for their size, support a disproportionately high number of orchids." One example is the Eastbourne Hills with 33 orchid species. Also important, are "Sites that support threatened or uncommon orchids" such as Plumatichilos tasmanicus. Of course, these sites are not identified in this book.

"The Wild Orchids of the Lower North Island" section primarily consists of a table listing all the taxa in the book along with each one's common name and name in Moore and Edgar's Flora Vol. 2, if any. There is also an indication of those species that haven't been recorded in the area covered in the last 10 years. A second table lists "Threatened and Uncommon Orchids in the Lower North Island" and shows the National and Regional status of these orchids.

The "How-to-use" subsection of the Field guide has several different "orchid finders" which list the orchids in the following subsection according to several criteria.

• Orchid types: epiphytic… spider orchids… orchids lacking chlorophyll.
• Altitude: coastal (0-10m), lowland (10-300m) … alpine >1100m sorted by habitat open ground, grassland… beech forest …
• Flower colour: white… mauve… red
• Flowering time: e.g. (January-March)

The page numbers of the species' descriptions are included in the lists.

The Species description subsection consists of two pages per species, and for each species contains Name and common name, Distribution - with a small distribution map included, Description - often based on the description by Lucy Moore in Flora Vol. 2, Recognition: key details to help differentiate from related species, Habitat, Flowering and fruiting times, and for threatened and uncommon orchids, their Status.

There are also at least two photos per species. Many of the photos have been taken of plants within the region covered in the book; however 32 species are illustrated only by photos taken in other locations around New Zealand. Only two photos showed any printing problems, they appear to have been over-enlarged. There were also a few typos, but nothing too distracting.

While the book has been primarily written for the lower North Island, it still covers a wide range of orchids and is a useful companion to the NZNOG Field Guide. It deserves a place in the library of anyone interested in Native orchids.

Note: A longer review by Murray Dawson was published in the New Zealand Journal of Botany 45: 731-733, 2007. The book is available to NZNOG members at the discounted rate of $15.