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Journal Number 112
May 2009
ELEMENTARY ED HATCH
Thelymitra 1
Drawings by Bruce Irwin
Thelymitra
(the flowers spiraling round the spike)
A large Australian genus extending to New Caledonia, Timor, Java, the Philippines and New Zealand.
The NZ plants are either Australian or derived from Australian species.
They don't look much like orchids; the tepals being similar in size and shape,
and the flowers opening wide
(when they open at all) to face the sun.
In Australia they call them "Sun Orchids"!
The genus was described by J.R. Forster from the endemic NZ T. longifolia.
20 or so species are recorded for NZ, as well as a number of tag-named forms.
Most are defined by details of the column structure and only a few can be identified by vegetative features.
I shall give only a selection here.
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Thelymitra longifolia
(the long leaf)
Mature plants with broad, ribbed, very long leaves
which lie
flat on the ground.
Younger plants have erect, concave leaves.
Flowers white, pink, blue or maroon.
Column pale pink, the midlobe dark, hooded,
with a bright-yellow, variously indented margin.
Lateral lobes with short, dense tufts of white cilia.
Distribution - Endemic - Three Kings Is., North, South, Stewart
and Chatham Is. (prefers grassland or open areas in light scrub).
Flowers - October - December - the type form is self pollinated.
(Another form, common in the far north, and known as
T. longifolia s.l., is insect pollinated and particularly pretty). |
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Thelymitra aemula
(the similarity to spotless forms of T. ixioides)
Flowers plain blue.
Column pale purple with yellow striae, and a narrow purple band near the top.
Midlobe not hooded, the upper margins bright-yellow and irregularly toothed.
Lateral lobes with tufts of white cilia.
Distribution - Endemic - North Id., North Cape south to Tauranga. A kauri zone species.
Flowers - November - December - self pollinated.
Thelymitra carnea
(flesh coloured)
Leaf tightly rolled, appearing terete, but becoming concave in old plants.
Column pinkish with a darker band near the top.
Midlobe slightly hooded, bright-yellow with finely toothed margins.
Lateral lobes oblique, narrow, bright-yellow with toothed upper margins and no cilia.
Distribution - Australia: Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland.
New Zealand - North Id., South Id., Sounds / Nelson district (in grass and/ or gum-clay).
Flowers - September - November - self pollinated.
Thelymitra cyanea
(the blue flower)
Plants of bogs and swamps. Flowers dark blue, rarely white.
Tepals conspicuously striped.
Labellum broad at the tip, with wavy margins.
Column purplish at base with broad, blue, vertical stripes.
Mid-lobe absent, lateral lobes bright-yellow, erect, twisted, without cilia.
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