A couple of weeks ago I noticed a pickled Prasophyllum ex Paranui collected by Doug McCrae on
2 November 1987. They were so small they could be mistaken for Genoplesium (Corunastylis). Coupled with the long time in pickle it was difficult to make satisfactory drawings. However, one flower yielded interesting information before it finally disintegrated.

Clearly it was not the plant I have always regarded as P. colensoi until David Jones published his resolution of the Prasophyllum complex. This plant doesn't fit Lucy Moore's description of P colensoi nor Jones's description.

It comes fairly close to Jones's description of P. alpinum (especially in size) except that the column appendages are very nearly as long as the anther whereas Jones says of P. alpinum they are much shorter. So much depends on the angle from which structures are viewed that this apparent difference may not be significant.

Apart from its smaller size, the plant also comes close to Prasophyllum "A". Another reason to doubt that it is "A" is that "A" appears to be limited on Ruapehu to elevations above 1000 metres.

Bob Goodger gave me a photo some years ago which clearly showed that the one colony of
Prasophyllum I know close to Tauranga is almost certainly the tall more elegant plant I call
Prasophyllum "B". It would be interesting to know whether the two taxa overlap. The Tauranga
"B" is probably at about 200m altitude so may be widespread throughout NZ, up to about 1000m.

Rather like Microtis, Prasophyllums don't appeal to many people. They lack the attractive blooms
of other genera and seem determined to look as alike as possible.