Journal Number 113
August 2009

THE TYPE LOCALITY

Tarawera and Thelymitra concinna Col
By Ian St George

	In 1887 William Colenso described Thelymitra concinna [1] from a single plant collected by Augustus Hamilton from open country near the east bank of the Mohaka River, north of Napier. Cheeseman and Hatch ignored it. Moore discussed it under T pulchella, but could not find the Type [2].

COLENSO'S DESCRIPTION

Thelymitra concinna, sp. nov.

Plant small, stem 4½ inches high, slender. Leaf single, narrow, 3 inches long, thin, rather membranaceous.
Flowers 2, small, sub ½ inch diameter; sepals ovate, acuminate, nerved, brown; petals blue with a tinge of
purple, broadly ovate, apiculate, broader than lip; column slightly hooded; margins plain, largely winged
below; staminodia arising from a strong nerve, long, curved, erect, finely filiform, with only a few long and
free hairs at tip, springing from 2-3 branches; hairs reddish, clavate.

Hab. Open country near the east bank of the River Mohaka, north of Napier; 1884: Mr. A. Hamilton.

Obs. I regret that I have only had a single specimen of this interesting lithe plant, which I believe to be
a very distinct species.

Mr. Hamilton was also struck with its peculiar and neat appearance when he gathered it, and though he
sought other specimens he was unsuccessful; sheep being pastured there in that locality, soon destroy
all small tender indigenous vegetation. Hitherto I have deferred publishing it, although I had examined
and noted its characters (as above) while fresh, wishing first to obtain more specimens.

Its small and graceful appearance, thin leaf, blue petals, narrow lip, and few reddish hairs springing in
distinct bundles or branches from its staminodia, are peculiar characters. It is to be hoped that its
discoverer may meet with more of the same plant when again in those parts.

	Augustus Hamilton 1854-1913 Augustus Hamilton was a scientist and collector, latterly Director of the Dominion Museum. He was born in 1853 at Poole, Dorset. In 1876 he came to New Zealand and became a teacher. He taught in primary schools at Thomdon, Okarito, and Petane.

At Petane he joined the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Society (becoming secretary), and established
the first Napier Museum, founded largely on items of ethnographic interest which he had collected
from Maori sources. The museum was destroyed in the earthquake of 1931 and many valuable
pieces disappeared.

In 1890 he was appointed Registrar of the University of Otago, and the most productive period
(1890-1903) of his life began, with a long list of papers on botany, zoology, and ethnology in
the Transactions.

He also began his outstanding work - The Art Workmanship of the Maori - which dealt with all
aspects of Maori material, culture, and life.

In 1903 he was appointed Director of the Colonial (later, Dominion) Museum and from then
until his death, 10 years later, he worked on increasing that institution's ethnological, historical,
and entomological collections [4].

Hamilton collected Earina quadrilobata (1883), Bulbophyllum tuberculatum (1893) and Thelymitra
concinna (1883) for Colenso. His diaries have been transcribed by Ross O'Rourke [5], but there are
no diaries for 1883-4, so Hamilton has not left a record of exactly where he found T. concinna.

What's Near The Mohaka Now?

Highway 5 crosses the Mohaka river about 10km south of Tarawera village. The land on the west
bank is occupied by Tarawera Station.

Along the side road up the east bank of the river sheep are still in evidence, along with polled
Charolais cattle. There is very little other than grassed pasture and forestry, and the roadside
papa banks are a tangled mass of exotic weeds, with only an occasional dried Microtis.

Not a single Thelymitra did I see.

What might T. concinna be?

Apart from T formosa, the only reddish-ciliated Thelymitra I know of in the middle North Island
is a slender plant regarded as a form of the variable amphidiploid T hatchii.

It has been reported from one Taranaki locality, now lost (Margaret Menzies) and from two Wairarapa
tracks in the Tararua's (Waohine, Pat Enright, and Mt Holdsworth, mihi), flowering in December.

I have seen specimens as small as that Colenso described, but always with a good clump of pink cilia,
which would not be described as a few long reddish hairs.

Alternatively it could be one of the forms of the variable T pulchella. Against that would be that I
have never seen T pulchella with reddish hairs, and Colenso proceeded within three years to publish
T fimbriata, which he clearly regarded as different.

The Type Specimen

Although Moore could not find the Type, there is, among Colenso specimens at WELT, one (WELT
24275) labelled, in Colenso's handwriting, "No.200. Thelymitra. Ham ? sp.nov." and elsewhere in
his hand "Thelym. Ham. Tarawera Dec/83 1 spn. only".

Tarawera is in the Mohaka ki Ahuriri block, which was confiscated in 1868 after the Hauhau
incursions into Hawkes Bay, and is the subject of current Waitangi Tribunal claims [3].

The specimen sheet is shown below, courtesy of Te Papa.

The plant is 116 mm (4.55 inches) high, its leaf about 71mm (2.8 inches) and it must be the type
of T. concinna. It now bears an additional label by Brian Molloy identifying it as T. pulchella
(but is not typified as T. concinna).

I think the column (Fig.1, and my tracing below) is that of the slender pink-ciliated form (Fig.2)
of T. hatchii (Figs 3-5) and not that of T pulchella.

Fig 1 - Column of the type T concinna		Fig 2 - T concinna from the Tararua's

Fig 3 - T hatchii - Erua		Fig 4 - T hatchii - Southland
Fig 5 - T hatchii - Tararua's

A brief history of Thelymitra hatchii

T. hatchii was first described by Lucy Moore in 1969 [6]. It is a big strong plant: why had it not
been noticed until then? It had, of course. Colenso described T. formosa from plants collected
between Norsewood and Dannevirke in 1882 [7]

His collection (WELT 22571 Herb. Colenso) includes T. formosa and T. hatchii, so clearly he did
not distinguish between them. Moore chose specimen B on that sheet as the lectotype, and indeed
that specimen and Colenso's description fit our modern concept of T. formosa rather better than
T. hatchii (although he described the "fimbria" as yellow).

Cheeseman ignored T. formosa completely. He was thinking about T. pulchella. His concept of that
species was based on northern specimens, with bare column arms, lacking any cilia or fimbria (see
drawings below). When he was sent Westland plants with fimbriated column arms, he described them
in 1906 as T pachyphylla [8].

In 1919 Petrie described them as T. caesia [9]. Both appear to have ignored Colenso's T fimbriata
described in 1890 from Southland specimens [10].

Hatch seems to have ignored Colenso's name T. formosa too. He was sent North Island specimens
of T hatchii by various collectors, but misidentified them as Cheeseman's pachyphylla and Petrie's
T caesia [11] (illustrations below).

When his paper was in press he was sent specimens of formosa from the South Island and recorded
them as a second jordanon of T. pachyphylla. Thus Hatch had examined T. hatchii and T. formosa,
and regarded both as T. pachyphylla. (Interestingly, though, his figures of "T pulchella" are also
more like T formosa than T pulchella in any of its currently recognized forms).

Colenso had examined T hatchii and T formosa, and regarded both as T formosa. When he was
sent T concinna he thought it was new. It is not, as Lucy Moore clearly suspected it was, the first
described of the list of currently accepted synonyms of T. pulchella.

If T. concinna is really a form of T. hatchii, then the species should strictly revert to the older name.
(Brian Molloy has identified the pollen of T concinna as typical of an amphidiploid - ["Notes" J108]).
But we have no certainty that T concinna and T hatchii share the same parentage [12] - there is more
than one taxon in the T longifolia aggregate and amphidiploids may have resulted from any of of
them crossing with T. formosa.

In my opinion, until the parentage of both is shown to be identical, the name T hatchii should
continue for the yellow ciliated robust plant, and T concinna should at present be reserved for
the slender pink-ciliated taxon.

References

 1. Colenso W 1887. On new Phaenogamic Plants of New Zealand. Trans. NZ I ; 20: 207.
 2. Moore L 1970. In Moore L & Edgar E. Flora of NZ part 2, . p128.
 3. http://www.waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz/pdf accessed 21 Dec 07.
 4. Phillipps WJ 1966. Augustus Hamilton. Encyclopedia of New Zealand accessed 12 Dec 07.
 5. O'Rourke R 2001-7. A diary of the late Augustus Hamilton. Museum of NZ Te Papa.
 6. Moore LB 1969. N.Z.J. Bot. 6: 477.
 7. Colenso W 1884. T.N.Z.I 16: 338.
 8. Cheeseman TF 1906. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1151.
 9. Petrie D 1919. T.N.Z.I. 51: 107.
10. Colenso W 1890. T.N.Z.I. 22: 490.
11. Hatch ED 1952. T.R.S.N.Z. 79: 394-395, p1.79, p1.81.
12. St George IM 2009. Arguing about aggregates... NZNO1 112: 5.