"When I applied the tag-names it was because I felt that they warranted recognition, but not
necessarily as separate species. I think it is safe to regard 'whiskers' and 'rest area' as good
species, but I'm much less sure of 'sphagnum' and 'Kaimai', as well as 'Kaitarakihe', 'Veil' and
'aff. dienema'.

"When 'Pollok' showed up it appeared worthy of species status too, but we haven't seen enough of it. Like 'Kaimai' it shows strong resemblance to N. rivularis s.s. structurally. The first few flowers sent to me had petals sweeping strongly forward and downward, appearing to be a good diagnostic character. The second lot had petals unwilling to adopt that stance (or any other pattern).

'Kaimai' has puzzled me for a long time, because structurally it is extremely close to N. rivularis s.s. but its colour (and colour patterns) are so very different. For some years I have felt it may be a subspecies or a colour variety of N. rivularis s.s. Your tentative identification of the Coromandel flowers supports that belief.

"As for the whiskers on those Coromandel flowers, they undermine the wisdom of tagging 'whiskers' by that particular name. Apart from its round appearance in side view and its enormous auricles, N. 'whiskers' shows a close resemblance to N. papa, particularly in colour. The actual whiskers are not prominent, and become obvious only when a strong light is reflected from them.

On 'whiskers' they obscure the pattern of veining on the 'apron' of the labellum, so providing another clue to whether the flower is N. papa or N. 'whiskers'. One small problem is that I'm not certain that N. papa lacks whiskers. Certainly N. iridescens has them, but they are very dark so are less likely to reflect light.

"Another doubtful species is N 'sphagnum'. It seems to be different from N iridescens (and
N. longipetala). It appears intermediate between those two species, though close to N iridescens. 'Sphagnum' is common in the wet areas of Rangataua, while N. iridescens appears to be absent. Why is that? I know that in sour soil N. iridescens becomes difficult to identify as such. The rounded 'bead' at the entrance to the column cavity becomes barely evident, and the whole flower appears shrunken in shape. Perhaps N 'sphagnum' and N. iridescens are genetically identical. N 'Kaitarakihi' may also prove to be N. iridescens modified. N 'Mangahuia' also.

"N. 'Veil' too, appears similar to N. longipetala except that it seems rather later flowering.

"Your N. 'Kaimai' flowers show no real differences from the many earlier drawings I have made of
N 'Kaimai', except that one drawing carries a note: 'Now that Corybas "whiskers" has been found from National Park, Wanganui, Arapuni and Waitomo, the similarity to C. "Kaimai" becomes very obvious.

BUT although the length of stubble varies on "whiskers", C. "Kaimai" apparently shows no sign of stubble"."