Journal Number 99
May 2006

NOTES etc

Mary Watson sent Michael Pratt a photograph of a Pterostylis she had found "on the Sunrise track,
East Ruahines on 2 December at a mid altitude perhaps 900m-1100m on the trackside near
quality bush".

Michael (in my opinion correctly) identified it as Pterostylis areolata, confirming an earlier
observation that it grows in the Ruahines. I have reported it also from the Tararuas - Ed.

Dan Hatch wrote (7 Dec 05), "My infamous pot of Nematoceras rivularis s.s., has for the first time produced flowers that are dark all over - no green at all.

This tends to prove in my opinion, something that I have harped on for years - that flower colour cannot be used as a taxonomic determinant."

The photo shows Nematoceras rivularis s.s., ex cult type locality: Keri Keri Falls;
photo EDH 21 Nov 2005.

Gordon Sylvester wrote (10 December), "I was out with Phil Knightbridge and Neil Bradley of
Hokitika yesterday morning. Found E autumnalis, E mucronata, Thelymitra aff ixioides. Phil
showed me a small Nematoceras aff. triloba and a Pterostylis venosa he collected from
Gunnar Downs earlier in the week.

Later in the afternoon went to Temple Basin and found Aporostylis bifolia, Caladenia aff. lyallii
with red stems, wide sepals, some with double flowers, very much smaller than the senior flower.
Also found P. australis in flower, Prasophyllum "B" and surprise surprise: Gastrodia about 150mm
high in open ground beside the track. I will be marking that for later in the month along with
Prasophyllum "B".

On the home front P. cernua (Okuku) is finished flowering; looks like there might be at least
one set seed pod; flowering period is about 2 weeks long."

Pat Enright reported two new orchids for the Aorangi's (ER 37): Corybas cheesemanii and
Singularybas oblonga.

Bruce Irwin wrote, "The cover of J97 is very interesting.

The colour of course immediately raises doubts that it is Prasophyllum colensoi. The tepals
also taper too much, but the giveaway is the apparently tapered floral bract which is definitely
not truncated as in P. colensoi.

Prasophyllum "B" shares the tapered bract and the rather widely spaced flowers."
Somebody needs to tell us just what Prasophyllum's we have!"

Introducing the World Orchid Society and Orchid World magazine. Their vision is to foster
global awareness, preservation, and cultivation of orchids through the sharing of knowledge
and experience.

"Our goal is to provide the medium, products, and knowledge that will serve to bring an enhanced
global appreciation of orchids to enthusiasts, growers, and hobbyists. To help meet this goal, the
World Orchid Society will publish Orchid World magazine. Orchid World is a beautifully designed,
full color publication. Published 10 times a year, Orchid World is scheduled to premier in the 4th
quarter of 2006. We welcome your ideas, support, and participation through your writing and
photography.

"We invite you to visit our website at www.worldorchidsociety.org for additional information
on the World Orchid Society.

Please note the availability of our 'Events' page which is open to any orchid related organization
wishing to post a show or sale that is open to the public. This service is available at no charge to
your organization. Please contact theeditor@worldorchidsociety.org with details of your event.

"As we work to assemble Orchid World, we would appreciate your input on what you particularly
like and dislike in a publication. What type of articles and departments would you like to see in
Orchid World magazine? Please feel free to send any comments, thoughts and suggestions to: editor@worldorchidsociety.org."

Murray Dawson pointed out a useful site:
http://www.biologydaily.com/biology/Taxonomy_of_the_Orchid_family.

Anne Mackenzie and others, including Mark Clements, presented a paper at the 18th World Orchid Conference in Dijon in March 2005. The Proceedings are now available.

The paper is "Australia's subantarctic orchids", and in addition to Nematoceras dienema, it discusses
the discovery on Macquarie Island of a new member of the N. triloba complex. It appears to be
endemic to Macquarie, though phylogenetic analysis places it close to N. aff triloba from the
Chatham's.

Of additional interest to us is the publication of a phylogram showing the Australasian forms of
Nematoceras, based on ITS sequences. These are the Rivularis group, the Macrantha group, and
an outgroup containing the Australian Corysanthes, Molloybas cryptanthus and N. acuminata.

The Rivularis group contains Nn. papa, rivularis, orbiculata, iridescens, longipetala, dienema, as well
as a range of undescribed taxa including Nn. "whiskers", aff. macrantha from Campbell Is, and others.

The Macrantha group contains forms of N. macrantha and the triloba complex, including N. hypogaea, the new Macquarie taxon, and 13 others.

Jeremy Rolfe emailed (20 Feb 06), "The attached photographs (Figs below) are of a greenhood that I photographed yesterday on a bank on my property in Stokes Valley.

The plant is approx 15 cm tall. There is no basal rosette. Diplodium alobulum flowers in the vicinity during winter, but this plant seems to be quite different (flowering time notwithstanding).
Can you identify it, please?"

This is the first North Island site for Pterostylis alveata (Diplodium alveatum), reported from northwest Nelson by Graeme Jane and Gael Donaghy in early May 1998. Jeremy's site photograph is shown below: it's good to see he has already sawn firewood for the winter - Ed.

Leicester Kyle emailed (20 Feb 06), "re ED 42.02....last month I was able to spend a couple of days in Sawcut Gorge, which is at the very north end of the Kaikoura Coast, where State Highway one first reaches the sea. It's a limestone feature, and, having noticed that the Kaikoura Coast has had relatively few orchid species reported present on it, I kept a good lookout.

"Those orchids I found that had not been previously noted from there are: Chiloglottis cornuta and Nematoceras triloba, both on higher ridges under beech. There was also a Thelymitra, which was long past flowering and could not be identified, and a tiny ephemeral Corybas growing sparsely amongst moss and liverwort upon a base of deposited travertine; this was in a dark part of the gorge, upon a dripping bank. This could have been the S. oblongus already reported from there, but the leaf did not have the tissue-like appearance of this species.

I collected a few plants, and stored them carefully, but they were so frail they had vanished by next
morning. There was a large-leaved vigorous Corybas I could not identify, locally abundant in gravel
and weed, and also a Gastrodia on the higher ridges under beech, growing amongst beech debris."

Hi from Brighton, emailed NZNOG members Kathy (and Neville) Henderson with attached photographs,
"I hope all is well with you. We've had some good orchid hunting trips this year. I've attached a couple of photos from Sardinia (lots of orchids and ancient sites), South Africa (animals, spring flowers and fantastic walking in the Drakensburg mountains) and a couple from 'UK orchid watch' (Norfolk... paddling to photograph the fen orchid, Liparis, below).

What is this (from Sardinia)? (Fig 2 below right)  
(It looks mighty like a naked Pterostylis, doesn't it? - Ed).

Our next trip is not plants...we're going to France skiing in January. We're hoping to come out to
work/play in NZ and Aus for a year sometime next year and hopefully will be able to do some field
trips and attend the Iwitahi meeting... hope it went well this year."

 
     
         Fen Orchid - Liparis                                                 Unknown from Sardinia

Lucy B Moore Memorial Scholarship. Jessica Beever wrote, "I very much enjoyed reading Bruce Irwin's frank account (NZ Native Orchid Journal 98, pp18-19) of his collaboration with botanist Lucy Moore, which so well reveals her quiet encouragement and generosity towards those she felt had a contribution to make.

"After Lucy Moore's death a scholarship was set up to honour her memory at her old school, Epsom Girls' Grammar. Lucy attended E.G.G.S. in the 1920's and was dux in her final year.

"The scholarship consists of a book prize, usually around $60, and a scholarship of $500 to the top Year 13 (final year student) who intends to study the biological sciences at university, and has been running since 1988. The current interest on the principal in the fund is only sufficient, however, to continue the scholarship at about one third of this level. Orchid lovers who contributed then, and others, might like to make a donation to revitalise the award."

Cheque's should be made out to "Epsom Girls' Grammar School Foundation", with covering note that they are for the "Lucy B Moore Memorial Scholarship", and posted to Epsom Girls' Grammar School, Silver Road, Epsom, Auckland 3.

Tricia Aspin emailed (27 Feb), "We have just returned safely from a wonderful 8 days tramping from the Hawkes Bay side of the Kaweka Range and through the Kaimanawas to the Desert Rd. I thought you might be interested in the orchids I spied along the way. With 8 days of food, tents and bare essentials to be carried our group of 5 went for a very small point-and-click camera - no good for orchid photos as I tried a couple last year - somewhat frustrating when one knows good opportunities will be missed but over 90kms is a long way to carry non-essentials.

"We started at Makahu Saddle up past Puketitiri in Hawkes Bay. About a minute along the track and I spotted some Orthoceras novae-zeelandiae. My friends were quick to comment that I was 'at it again'! Side by side, one had the usual green and purple flowers while the other was less robust, green and had yellow where the purple usually is. A good photo missed! Of course I didn't have a lens or Field Guide either. Eric S tells me Dan Hatch has noted these yellow ones before.

"Up by the tarns on North Kaweka were lots of Prasophyllum colensoi. In flower and in seed. We nearly got blown off the mountain in a gale that night - no sleep at all -quite the adventure. The Prasophyllum's were present in all the subalpine and alpine areas of vegetation right through the Kaimanawas as well around 1350-1700m altitude.

"In the beech forest of the Kaweka Forest Park from West off Kaweka Range through to Tira Lodge, to Te Pukeohikarua, to Harkness hut were many Chiloglottis cornuta in flower and with some elongating to seed.

Most noticeable on this section were many Caladenia in flower. I will have to guess that they are C. aff.
chlorostyla. Flowers very white with the red that one usually sees with C. minor (Eric) / C. chlorostyla
(Field Guide). I do not recall noticing any dark gland tipped hairs though. I thought it might have been
C. nothofageti at the time but the deep red barred labellum rules that one out. All had only one flower per stem (just when I was getting used to seeing up to 4 as is the case round here!) They were present again in the really beautiful Cascade North Arm section of beech forest but seemed to be absent further to the west in the Private land and Kaimanawa Forest Park section through to Waipakahi.

"Also spotted several Nematoceras triloba in a vegetative state in the bush and several Thelymitra spp. in seed in sunny spots along the way.

"On top of Te Rakituangiangi, 1605m, were several Aporostylis bifolia just going to seed.

"As well as the orchids there is a vast amount of really interesting country in there. We loved it."