Journal Number 112
May 2009

THE TYPE LOCALITY

Ongaonga and Pterostylis tristis
By Ian St George

	In 1885 William Colenso described Pterostylis tristis [1] from plants collected by Henry Hill from the south bank of the Waipawa River. Cheeseman included it in the Australian P. mutica [2] (the collections he cited in the Manual also contain Hymenochilus tanypodus), but Brian Molloy recognised the differences, and P. tristis stands, the genus now been renamed Hymenochilus tristis (Colenso) D.L.Jones, M.A.Clem. & Molloy. Austral. Orchid Res. 4: 74 (2002).

COLENSO'S DESCRIPTION

P. tristis, sp. nov.
Plant very small, rather dingy-looking, with a greyish-green appearance.

Leaves small, 5-7 sub-rosulate, broadly ovate, obtuse or sub-acute, thickish, pale-green, deeply pitted,
sub-concave, midrib stout, white and prominent below, margins closely and finely sub-crenulate,
about ¼ inch long, including petiole; petiole very broad and stout, 2-3 lines long, white, with three
green veins.

Scape stoutish, 2-2 ½ inches high, with 3-4 long acuminate bracts, clasping, adpressed, besides those
under each pedicel.

Flowers 2-3, on rather long pedicels, light-brownish striped with red, scarcely ¼ inch long, and nearly as
broad, sub-second, slightly drooping, gaping; galea boat-shaped, much and somewhat abruptly arched
with a short tip; petals broadly lanceolate or sub-rhomboidal, lower margin cilio-serrulate, tip acute;
lower lip sub-orbicular, bifid nearly to middle, tips sub-acute, scarcely produced; labellum small, pale,
highly irritable, broadly oblong, margin entire, very obtuse, with two minute crenulations at tip; appendage
short, thickened and rounded at base, sub-erect, free, dark-green; column wings sub-quadrate, auricled,
auricles very obtuse and rounded, their margins finely ciliate, not produced above, but front upper angle
thickened and dark-green; the lower and slender portion of the column broadest in the middle; stigma small,
scarcely prominent.

Ovary (immature) long, clavate; valves widely separate, with narrow, raised, green margins and round apices.

Hab. Open turfy spots, flat lands, south bank of the river Waipawa; 1885: Mr. H. Hill.

Obs. I. This is an interesting little species, from its differing so very widely from all its known New Zealand
congeners: yet, in several particulars, allied to some of the small Australian species, as P. mutica, Br.,
and P. aphylla, Lindl. Its little labellum is very irritable, (like those of some other species of this genus,)
closing sharply up against the column with a spring on being only slightly breathed on! and so remaining.
Their root-leaves, like those of the allied Australian species above-noted, mostly wither before flowering.

Obs. II. In the spring of this year (1885), I received from Mr. Hill two very small plants about ¼ inch high,
with their tips of greyish leaves scarcely emerging above the tuft of mosses among which they grew, yet,
fortunately, with their subterranean stems and little tubers complete. These I carefully planted, and was
rewarded in seeing them flower in November. Mr. Hill informs me that it was on a spot where he was resting,
during his journey, that he casually found them (in the mosses). I presume, from the smallness of the plant,
and its dull, uninviting appearance, it has long been overlooked.

Henry Thomas Hill was born in England, was a gifted educator, and succeeded Colenso as chief district school inspector in Hawke's Bay. He then embarked on a rigorous programme of school inspections. The diaries Hill kept indicate that he had a very deliberate pattern of visiting to enable him to cover his 8,578 square mile district on horseback twice each year. On these trips he had to spend nights either camped in the open or in substandard backblocks accommodation.

"There are three aspects of life in this district - town, country, bush," he wrote in his annual report for 1880. He pointed out that "the modes of life, the surroundings, and the pursuits of the people" were different in the three environments, and that accordingly so were "the conceptions of the people."

Makaretu school teacher William Howlett (who later collected for Colenso) won high praise from Henry Hill for his innovative curriculum, in which the children "learnt by doing." The majority of his pupils were Scandinavians, wrestling with the English language.

Hill was Napier Mayor 1917-19. A keen scientist, he had a particular interest in the volcanic plateau of the central North Island. He had 38 papers on various subjects published in the Transactions.
He is thought to have been the first Pakeha to climb to the crater of Mt Ruapehu.

IIn retirement Henry Hill divided his time between his Napier home and the property he had purchased at Lake Taupo. I don't know whether Henry Hill Rd in Taupo was named for him.

He collected the orchids Bulbophyllum ichthyostomum (1883), Pterostylis tristis (1885), Orthoceras caputserpentis (1889), Pterostylis speciosa (1889) and P. polyphylla (1889) for Colenso.

The braided Waipawa river winds its way down from the Ruahines, NE of Ongaonga, past Ruataniwha,
and on through Waipawa township. Henry Hill would have ridden upstream.

Colenso recorded receiving the plants from Hill, in a letter to David Balfour dated 1 December 1885,
"I don't know if I told you of a peculiar species Mr Hill found between Waipawa and Ongaonga, on the open dry plain among the low Manuka bushes; he brought away a big tuft of moss, & in it were 2 or 3 little grey leaves thus.

Or scarcely as big; I saw they were Orchids, partly from their little tubers, and carefully planted them before I went inland in Oct & they grew fast; on my return they were ¼in in height & about to flower
(2 on one & 3 on tother) - flowers small thus.

At first I supposed a new genus; and more trouble. However on dissecting carefully one fl, I found it was a true Pterostylis, & allied to an Australian one, (or two), small & reddish... and without tails.
I was much pleased with this novelty." [3].

The Type Sheet of Pterostylis tristis at WELT

The Type specimen is in WELT.

It is a packet of tiny plants, in seed. In Colenso's handwriting is "Pt. tristis from Mr.Hill, Decr. 1885 - attached to tubers - t. planted". The photograph is reproduced here with the permission of Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand.

The Waipawa-Ongaonga Road Now

The road follows the south banks of the Waipawa as far as Ruataniwha, then turns away from the river toward Ongaonga across open farmland on old river flats.

Hill was probably on his six-monthly school inspection, so would have been riding on as direct a route as possible, stopping to rest somewhere near the road, on the moss in the shade of manuka, on what was then "the open dry plain".

Now the river is full of greywacke gravel from the Ruahines, on its way to the Napier beaches, with the inevitable lupins; and its environs are all grassed pasture today - no longer suitable habitat for P. tristis.

Footnote

I was not aware of any other records of P. tristis from the North Island, until Pat Enright showed me Tony Druce's plant list for the Ruahines: it includes P. tristis, the specimens collected mid-january from limestone country near Ruahine Corner hut.

Some fit young orchidologist should go up and look there.

References

1. Colenso W. A Description of some newly-discovered and rare Indigenous Plants: being a further Contribution
    towards making known the Botany of New Zealand. Trans.N.Z.Inst. 1885; 18: 271.

2. Cheeseman TF. Manual of the NZ flora. Govt. Printer, Wellington, 1906.

3. Colenso W. Letter to David Balfour 1 December 1885. Original in Alexander Turnbull Library.
    Reproduced in Colenso to Balfour, NZNOG Historical Series 16.