Journal Number 112
May 2009

ORIGINAL PAPERS

Far North Spiranthes
By Kevin Matthews, Kaitaia

Having turned up three new sites last year for the elusive Far North Spiranthes and given that
Bill Campbell and I had seen lots of leaf earlier in the season, I had high hopes of seeing lots of
flowering Far North Slipper Spiranthes, tagged S. "Motutangi". It is by no means easy to spot
hiding itself in amongst rush in ancient Kauri wetland.

But on a revisit to Waipapakauri wetland on 20 Jan to see the Spiranthes, I was surprised to find
that out of the many dozens of juvenile plants seen last season and this past November, I could
only find three plants and these were in flower (Fig.1).

One had all but finished which would point to its having started flowering in December; last year
this colony was still flowering on the 1st of March. It would seem the very wet winter and high
water levels may have affected plant growth. I'm hoping the leaf has died off whilst leaving the
slender, slightly tuberous, fleshy roots still viable.

At Lake Ohia on 31 January I took a long walk in tropical conditions and the result was just as
disappointing, given the good showing Bill Campbell had seen in early December.

Brian Molloy had first described Spiranthes "Motutangi" as having a slipper labellum in the mid
1970s. This Spiranthes plant was collected unknowingly by the late Lucy Moore in soil along with
a collection of Cryptostylis subulata; the Spiranthes subsequently sprouted and flowered in
Christchurch [Brian Molloy: personal communication].

NB The late Digby Graham discovered C. subulata in 1974? at Motutangi located south of Mt Camel;
this was the first record in NZ.

Spiranthes was also collected by the late Doug Macrae at Motutangi sometime in the mid 1980s
and he was able to send a voucher to Brian Molloy who confirmed it as S. "Motutangi" [NZNOG
Newsletter 22 June 1987].

I have also sent vouchers to Brian Molloy from Sweetwater and he also equates these with S.
"Motutangi". Peter De Lange also found this slipper form of Spiranthes at Lake Ohia in 1996
and knew it as S. "Motutangi".

The five flowering Spiranthes that I've found in behind Motutangi have an open ended labellum,
these may be yet another variation. The slipper labellum of the Sweetwater, Waipapakauri and
Lake Ohia Spiranthes remains intact even after the flower has passed maturity.

It will be worth another trip up to Motutangi it see how the Spiranthes colony with the open ended
labellum (Fig.2,3) is faring; this will probably mean looking for matured flowers this late in the
season.

I believe the site where the late Lucy Moore collected the late Digby Graham's Cryptostylis subulata
was in another area and most likely on private land, it will be worth a visit also, that's if it's still
intact after recent drainage works!

Interestingly the Waipapakauri Spiranthes site also has Cryptostylis subulata present, making
this now the most southerly site for C. subulata known - previously it was Lake Ohia.

I'll continue to follow this rather rare Spiranthes "Motutangi" with interest.

(Just an added note - all the Spiranthes seen up here to date have a clockwise helix).

Figure 3		Figure 1 (below) - Figure 2 (above)