Journal Number 112
May 2009

Notes etc

KEVIN MATTHEWS EMAILED, "I realised I had not forwarded these pix to you; I'm sure you will
find them of interest. This unidentified fly visited all sixty plus flowers and was so compelled
that it never seemed to bother about the a 100mm macro lens following its every move. I didn't
think these Microtis offered very much in the way of nectar so perhaps the attractant is a
pheromone to help with pollination?

If you look closely you can see pollen attached to the hairs between the eyes."
- and its proboscis seeking nectar from the basal calli? - Ed.

DAVID LANG WROTE from Sussex, "I hope you have had a better year than we have had in UK.
The weather has been awful and the orchid season was dismal. Many woodland species failed to
appear at all, and everything else was below standard!.... I spent several weeks on Colonsay and
Barra islands in the Hebrides off the northwest coast of Scotland.

I met up with Scottich botanist colleagues to study Spiranthes romanzoffiana, which occur in the
Hebrides and nowhere else in Europe, with main distribution across North America.

There has been argument for decades that there were two species in UK, despite the taxonomists
lumping, and recent DNA study has agreed, so I wanted to see at first hand. I was lucky to find
plenty in both populations, and feel they merit sub-specific rank, but not total separation.
It was all very enjoyable, and the locals friendly and helpful."

GRAEME JANE SENT the extraordinary photograph of a forest of Corybas cheesemanii
fruiting peduncles, taken at Farewell Spit.

RUTH RENNER EMAILED from Diggers Valley, "Your website is delightful to view. I found it
when searching for orchids after I stumbled upon this one, on 11 November, which I can't
specifically match to any of those shown in the website photographs. It, and the Onion Orchid
growing next to it, are growing in the cracks in the trunk of a fallen, now dead, Puriri.

We are about 10km southwest of Kaitaia, near the Herekino Forest. I've not seen any of these
orchids before and I suspect these plants are new to this location, since the tree is a regular
climbing playground for visiting children and we hadn't noticed any plants in our way before
I climbed up to see what some Kotare were up to in an epiphyte growing further along the tree.

Are you able to identify it from these pictures please? The plants are now fruiting."

I wasn't able to say what it is, but Eric Scanlen identified it as Thelymitra "sansfimbria",
which Kevin Matthews discovered recently - Ed.

JEREMY ROLFE EMAILED Pat Enright (14 Dec 08), "I went for a walk up the ridge track behind the Rimutaka tearooms this morning. Plenty of Thelymitra hatchii, T. pulchella, and T. longifolia, as you noted last weekend, but it was cloudy and none were open. I also saw a few T. pauciflora long since finished flowering. I got some decent pics of Pterostylis montana (right) about halfway up the ascent to the Pimelea gnidia site on the high point north of Turnbull...."

MIKE LUSK SENT the photograph of a broad-leaved Pterostylis from the same track as his photographs of P. trifolia (aka venosa). He wondered if it might be a hybrid between the latter and another species. Could be - but note the broad leaves of Jeremy Rolfe's P. montana - Ed.

GARY LITTLE WROTE, "As Asta and I live in the back-blocks of the Herekino region and rely
mainly on firewood for our hot water and heating, regular excursions have to be made into
the surrounding bush to ensure our living standards don't cool off.

"While we were supplementing our wood supply a few months ago, I selected a dead tree for
firewood and was preparing to reduce it to manageable chunks when I noticed a good-looking
specimen of Drymoanthus adversus on the trunk. Not wanting to have the demise of this plant
on my conscience, I removed it, along with some surrounding moss, and ultimately 'replanted'
it under the bark of a totara stump just outside our garage door.

"This enabled me to keep an eye on its progress. Things went well, and as the flowering season
got closer, the little plant began to do its thing and buds appeared and in due course, a couple
of groups of flowers began to bloom.

When everything appeared to be photogenically ready, I started taking images of these flowers.
As you are probably aware, D. adversus produces really small flowers. I gauge that these ones
were only about 4mm across, so you can understand my amazement when I examined the
images on the computer and found small (very small) ant-like creatures inside the flowers.

"I have checked our literature, but as at the time of writing, have not identified these little critters.
They have a distinctive striped abdomen, like a bee.

"However, the important point to note, was whether or not these fellas were active in the pollination
process of the D. adversus. They appeared to be placing their attention mainly at the base of the
frontal lobes of the labellum.

One of the images showed two ants present at the same time in one flower. Another flower seemed
to contain a dead ant, but there does not appear to be any sign of pollen on any of the ants.

"So, apart from getting close and visually intimate with these flora and fauna, I am unable to shed
any light on this potential pollinating process for D. adversus. Maybe next year I may get another
chance to get personal again."

Fig.35 shows two ants in one flower, and another flower whose anther cap has been dislodged,
exposing the pollinia and their stipe - Ed.

BANDORE: AN OBSOLETE musical instrument like a guitar. Also, bandora. Also called pandora,
pandore, pandoura, pandure.

Earlier bandurion < Sp bandurria < L pandura < Gk pandoûra three-stringed musical instrument.

From the Latin pandura comes the epithet pandurate = fiddle-shaped, as in the leaf of Nematoceras panduratum, a misnamed N. rivulare with pandurate leaf.

PAT ENRIGHT SENT a candidate for our "Whats this then?" department. A curious pale Pterostylis with a very upright dorsal sepal: features of P. montana and P. cardiostigma? (the stigma was long and flat, as in P. montana sensu Hatch).

PAT ALSO SENT (16 Jan 09) a very late, wide-leaved, small-flowered Pterostylis aff. graminea from
Mt Surf in the Aorangi SFP region. Brian Molloy kindly identified it as similar, if not identical to
P. "sphagnum".

THE JULY 2009 issue of Muelleria promises a paper by JA Jeanes entitled, "Resolution of the
Thelymitra variegata ... complex of southern Australia and New Zealand".

That complex includes, of course, Thelymitra matthewsii. We'll anticipate that eagerly.

GEORGINA UPSON EMAILED (18 Jan 09), "North West Nelson has provided its share of
excitement this season.

"A healthy population of Linguella puberula was found over a sizeable area in northern Golden Bay
when the plants I discovered last year were surveyed. Mark Moorhouse spent days searching this
rather inhospitable terrain so it was pleasing to have such a result. Around 500 plants were seen.

"Thelymitra aemula can no longer claim to be a Kauri zone plant with it being this season's Golden
Bay surprise. Found near Takaka, the tall plant with loosely closed flowers seemed a little too blue
to be Thelymitra aff. pauciflora. I reached up on a high bank to try to ease open the flower but
gave up deciding that it must be T. aff. pauciflora after all. Not so for the next group of plants
that I found! (Photo below).

"On the Nelson side of "the hill" in the Baton area, an "aha" moment saw me sending specimens
of a Nematoceras I had been puzzling over for several years, to Brian Molloy. They seemed to
match the description of Nematoceras sulcatum. At present it stands as Nematoceras aff. sulcatum
with a reply from Mark Clements pending. Brian Molloy states that Chatham Island plants are very
like these except they are larger and lack the reddish/purple colouration which is a striking feature
of the Baton plants. This seems to be the first mainland find but perhaps others have found plants
like this elsewhere (Photos below).

"In the same vicinity are to be found plants resembling Nematoceras "Pollok".
There were only two flowers that I saw among what otherwise appeared to be a
Nematoceras "whiskers" colony which had more or less finished flowering.
These need further study (Photo below).

"I investigated the question of "fur" on the labellums of Pterostylis venosa to find that with
20x magnification the basal 1/3 was slightly papillose although this could be merely cell structure.
The apical 2/3 is thickly covered in transparent needle tipped teeth facing the labellum base.
These are minute, arranged in the manner of a wood rasp, and cover the entire upper surface.
This may serve the purpose of encouraging small insects to travel down the labellum into the
flower, or may hold and fling an insect into the column area when the labellum is triggered.
It is these teeth that give the labellum a velvety appearance when light is reflected off them."

GRAHAM DICKSON SENT Eric Scanlen photos of Hymenochilus tristis (below left) and
H. tanypodus (below right) growing within a metre of each other by the Old Dunstan Road
west of Middlemarch at altitude 1005m, on or about 9 January.

He and others including member Jan Kelly, had their noses to the ground at the exact site
where Graham found lots of Stegostyla alpina last year [J109:39] but there was no sign of
it this year, just these tiny Tanypodus instead, thriving amongst the invasive weed,
Hieracium pilosella.

GEORGINA UPSON EMAILED, "The notes in Kevin Matthews Far North Diary concerning
the putative Thelymitra aff. brevifolia, Figs. 26, 27 J111 were of great interest to me.

The photographs appear to show flowers that would seem to fit the description of Thelymitra
brevifolia with the exception that the column arms appear to be sharply bent upwards.
The description in David Jones's Native Orchids of Australia seems to stress that the column
arms are gently curved. The folded leaf is also at odds with David Jones description of a flat leaf.
I can therefore understand the use you make of the term affiliated.

"This last season I found plants that also seemed to match the Thelymitra brevifolia description
in Abel Tasman National Park, (photo below), but then baulked when confronted with a folded leaf.

These plants are growing in sandy clay soils in a relatively dry, baking trackside situation.
They are similar to Thelymitra aff. pauciflora and very reluctant to open even on a hot day.
Due to this similarity I had planned to revisit the site this coming season for further study
however this may stimulate debate on the matter meanwhile.

"Leaf descriptions of Thelymitra have caused me considerable difficulty with them frequently
not matching the species the flowers indicate. I have almost reached the point of disregarding
them except in the broadest sense. Do others have the same problems?"

GORDON SYLVESTER EMAILED, "This shot (of Winika) from my place on Sunday 8 Feb".

Interesting 4 labellar ridges as in "Winika lessonii" - but wait! isn't that a tiny 5th midline ridge? - Ed.

GORDON EMAILED AGAIN (17 Feb 09), "About 3 weeks ago I went looking for the Corunastylis
on my property. I could not locate any this season, and presumed because there was such a
good display last year this was a down year for the genus.

On 7 Feb I went over to the same sites to have another look and to my surprise noted not only
were the plants showing but were in seed. I was a little disappointed to say the least. I went back
on 8 Feb and finally located one plant still extending. I marked the fertilised Corunastylis as a
locator for a visit the next weekend.

On Sat 14 Feb I returned to my marked site and the plant was looking like it had been fertilised also. I took a couple of shots to record this and noted that the plant in the viewfinder was not the plant I thought I was looking at. Flowers were open (photo)!

"As it was early evening, to escape the heat of the day I shot several photos and hightailed out to civilization. The gnats were in fine form.

"After looking at my shots I decided to go back in on Sunday 15th and have another look at the plant in early morning light. It was at this junction I noted several differences between the two stems and flower heads. It set to wondering what if any is the agency for fertilisation, Gnats would seem to be the perfect size but I have no other evidence for that comment. Is the earlier plant self fertile (I have never seen that particular variation open)?

There are fewer flowers on the "self fertile" species. Hmm more work for next season. I took several more shots and returned home."

REBECCA BOWATER EMAILED (16 Feb 09), "I found this in Golden Bay last week and was
checking if it is Gastrodia sesamoides agg or G. cunninghamii?"

I think it's Gastrodia "long column" - Ed.

21 TO 22 FEBRUARY SAW YOUR EDITOR & son climbing the unkind, rough, cynically-named
"Gentle Annie" track to the Powell hut near the summit of Mt Holdsworth in the Tararuas.

It is the best year I have seen for Earina autumnalis: the damp misty air was filled with its scent well before we spotted the plants. Winika was almost over, as was Orthoceras. Scads of Thelymitra
cyanea seed capsules witnessed the great season just past; and a small colony of fruiting
Pterostylis aff. areolata (the same one we saw in the Ruahines in December) was trackside
near the hut.

The nor'westers were too strong for us to stay upright along the summit ridge, so we retreated
in timid discretion back down, legs shrieking in protest.

"AND TO THE QUESTION, - What constitutes a really distinct genus - or, species?
I cannot give a satisfactory answer. I know not of any certain rule; and I find the first Botanists
of the day opposing one another in their speculations; while not a few are engaged in laboriously
undoing what their predecessors or compeers have toiled to rear."
(Colenso to JD Hooker 28 Aug 1854).

ALVA GOSLING SENT INFORMATION about a delightful and informative new publication
from the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (Cornell University Press), Illustrated dictionary
of orchid genera by Peggy Alrich & others. Alva is one of those acknowledged as helping
to compile this vast project.

SMALL VOLUME IN the Auckland Museum library caught my eye: it was "I. Romance of the
Flora of New Zealand, and II. Farthest North in New Zealand - A Memorable Tour by Sir George
Fenwick, published in 1922.

Fenwick (1847-1929) had been editor of the Otago Daily Times 1880-1909; he "wrote widely,
his articles and pamphlets reflecting his enthusiasm for tramping, natural history and travel"
(George Griffiths, in Dictionary of NZ biography).

There is a great photograph (above) of the car at Te Paki stream, accompanied by this paragraph,
"After a magnificent run of an hour and a half the 60 miles of beach were traversed and Scott's
Point reached. Here the car was turned back, as we had over-run our distance by a few miles.
We were met at the mouth of a sandy-bottomed creek by a messenger from Te Paki station,
and conducted up the wide bed of the creek and over some scrub-covered country to the
homestead, where a most cordial welcome was given us by the owner, Mr. R. Keene, of
Wellington, and the manager and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. West Hill."

NZNOG MEMBER ALVA GOSLING was sad to have missed the Wakarara field trip, since "...
they did try to educate me at Makaroro School. Below is a photo taken in 1938 of the Gardner
& Yeoman sawmill site on the banks of the Makaroro river. Our house was the second to last
at a position midway down the left side of the photo, to the right of two native trees on the
river bank (arrow - Ed). The old school is the four window building (arrow - Ed), just above
the entrance to the bridge across the river - now washed away."

NZNOG CHAIR DAVID MCCONACHIE wrote (19 Feb 09) to Michael Duncan, President of
ANOS Victoria,

"I am writing to you on behalf of the Committee and members of the New Zealand Native Orchid
Group to extend our sympathies and condolences to you and all the members of ANOS Victorian
Group who have suffered a loss as a result of the recent bushfires. The enormity of what has
happened is difficult to comprehend and while the loss of plants and property is extremely sad,
the loss of life is a tragedy."

Mike Duncan replied, "Thanks to you and all our friends in the NZNOG for your kind thoughts at
this difficult time. The recent fires have been unprecedented and had a huge impact on our lives.
Due to the enormous scale of the disaster, it seems that most people in Melbourne know someone
who has lost a home or friend / relative in the fire.

Unfortunately it appears that a few ANOS Victoria members are amongst those killed in the fire,
while others have lost their homes. Conversely, a few members were able to successfully defend
their homes against the flames.

The support received from all our friends in the orchid world has been greatly appreciated."

KEVIN MATTHEWS EMAILED (5 March), "Attached are the 'seahorse'-like seeds of
Orthoceras novae-zelandiae. I suggest the wing edge is an aid to help wind dispersal.
The pic was taken at 100x plus the magnification through the digicam."