Journal Number 111
February 2009

THE TYPE LOCALITY

The Tararuas and Pterostylis graminea
By Ian St George

The Description

JD Hooker described Pterostylis graminea in his Flora Novae Zelandiae.

He wrote:

"Hab. Northern and Middle Islands. Auckland, Sinclair, East Coast, Colenso. Otago, Lyall.
A small species, 4-6 inches high, like a miniature of P. banksii, but without the long tails to the perianth, which is only ½ - ¾ inch long."

He wrote later in the Handbook:

"Slender, leafy, 6-10 in. high. Leaves sheathing, narrow linear-lanceolate, 1-3 in. long.
Flowers solitary, ¾-1 in. long, of the same form as P. banksii, but much smaller, and the sepals less produced into slender tails.... Probably only a small state of P. banksii...."

Nowadays we recognise several taxa in the Pterostylis graminea aggregate.
Which of them is the true P. graminea?

The Type Specimen

The type sheet at Kew contains Colenso specimens numbered 1742 and 1960.
They were sent to Kew in July 1848 in a letter containing plants numbered 507 to 2318.
No.1742 is the lectotype for P. graminea.
The relevant entries in Colenso's plant list read as follows...

• 1738. Thelymitra montana, W.C., fine sp., clayey hills, Tararua.
• 1739. Microtis, from ditto.
• 1740. Dendrobium, ditto; Epiphytical, on large trees. A sp. apparently near D. biflorum,
  certainly distinct from D. Cunninghamianum; - D. Tararuense, W.C.
• 1741. Grammatis exudatum. (vide no. sent before), Tararua.
• 1742. Pterostylis graminifolia, W.C., - growing with 1738, & 1739.

The Type Locality

Colenso's first visit to the Tararuas was in November 1847, and his only acquaintance with the range was on returning from his later biennial visits to Wellington to report to the Church Missionary Society, so (as Bruce Hamlin has pointed out), any reference to localities in the Tararua range can only mean sites near the present Rimutaka Hill roadside.

Colenso habitually referred to the region around Te Kaikokirikiri (Masterton) as the Head of the Wairarapa Valley - not, as one might expect, the area just south of the Mt Bruce saddle. (In Herb. Colenso there is a Euphrasia annotated in Colenso's hand, "Pterostylis Swamp near Kaikok").

Colenso and his party stopped near Mangaroa, then continued over what is now the Rimutaka Hill Road as far as the summit; their path down to the Wairarapa is unknown, but probably followed Abbots Stream to the site of present-day Featherston

The relevant entries in Colenso's plant list read...

• 1959. Pterostylis, all I have, 2 sps., from head of Wairarapa valley: but compare with
• 1906. (No.1906 is Pterostylis foliata).
• 1960. Pterostylis, from ditto: perhaps same as 1742.

He had sent packages to Kew in Dec 1846 and Sep 1847, so it is reasonable to assume that it was
between September 1847 and July 1848 that he collected the specimens for this package sent in
July 1848.

Colenso visited the Tararuas only once in that period, in November 1847, though he was again
at Te Kaikokirikiri 13-17 April 1848, on his way to Wellington via Cape Palliser.

Extracts from his diary for 1847 read as follows.

• 4 Nov. Left Pitoone... by the new road leading up the valley of Heretaunga ("Hutt")...
  which is densely wooded... halted for the night above River Te Mangaroa....
• 5 Nov. At 8, a.m. commenced ascending the mountain range, and... about 4 p.m.
  gained the summit of the range, very nearly to which place the road has been cut...
  as the evening was fast advancing, we hastened to descend by a miserable Native path
  to the vallies below... through thick woods, when finding a dry and level spot we halted
  for the night in the forest.
• 6 Nov. An hour's travelling brought us upon a line of road upon this (the Wairarapa)
  side of the mountain range; and another hour... to the flat open country of Wairarapa.
• 7 Nov. Lord's Day rested in the wood.
• 8-9 at Huaangarua (Martinborough)
• 10 Te Ahiaruhe (on the Martinborough - Gladstone road)
• 10 to Hurunui-o-Rangi (the marae at Gladstone, opposite Gladstone and Fairview vineyards)
• 11-14 Te Kaikokirikiri (Masterton)
• 15 upriver and on to
• 16-17 Te Hawera (between Woodville & Eketahuna)
• 18 Ngaawaparua (junction of the Manawatu and Mangatainoka rivers)
• 19 poling upriver to Otawao to Puehutai
• 20-21 Puehutai
• 22 Te Hautotara
• 24 Epairima (nr Wallingford)
• 25 Te Waipukurau ...and home on 30 November.

Thus Colenso must have collected No.1742 by the Rimutaka roadside on 5 or 6 November 1847
(the "road" was a hazardous track until a six-year improvement was begun in 1853). It seems very
likely he collected No.1960 near Masterton on 11-14 November 1847.

Hooker has "East Coast, Col" is a type locality, and this may refer to an earlier specimen sent from
Northland. (Importantly, when Colenso referred to "East Coast" in his letters to Kew, he meant the
east coast of the North Island - ie, not the modern restricted interpretation of Gisborne/Poverty Bay,
nor even east coast lower North Island (the Wairarapa coast) but the whole eastern seacoast from
North Cape to Cape Palliser, including Bay of Plenty.

He wrote to Hooker in 1854:

• As to the giving of "E. Coast" as a hab. for many Plants, it might just as well be left out,
  because several plants are peculiar to different parts (or ½ degrees of lat., if you will),
  of the E. Coast; I also think, E. Coast would have been better for between this place
  (i.e. Waitangi, Hawke's Bay) & Cook's Str.

Today the Pterostylis graminea that flowers in November on clayey hills in the Tararuas near
the Rimutaka Hill road is that illustrated in the 4 photos below, photographed by the Puffer
trackside, Kaitoke, on 3 Nov 08. Brian Molloy says it is a good match for Colenso's type.

Pterostylis graminea - Puffer trackside, Kaitoke
3rd November 2008