Tricia Aspin called the Column from Matakawau on 29 Nov 2005. She had come across a colony of 200+ Caladenia minor (Petalochilus chlorostyla) in the Kemp Road Reserve, about 200m from the road. Some were single flowered, most were twins, many were triples but four had the unheard of, four flowers! The Column grabbed his camera gear and went.

On site, it was just as Tricia had said with many of the C. minor flowers appearing illogically, to stem from large Nematoceras triloba agg. leaves spread throughout the same site in a stand of kauri where no Pterostylis agathicola were in evidence. Who has ever seen these two orchids thriving together under kauri to the exclusion of P. agathicola?

Stranger still, the whole 8m long, potato shaped site also hosted a crop of recently deceased and dying mingimingi (Leucopogon fasciculata) making one wonder if some invasive fungus were concurrently killing the mingimingi whilst providing a feast for the orchids?

29 Nov was late in this clime for fresh flowers especially as many were still in bud. No plants had
more than one flower open, others were in capsule or in bud. The biggest 4 flowered specimen
was a comparatively huge 380mm tall with a leaf 180mm long. But the flowers were quintessentially C. minor as can be seen in the photo below, the third and fourth flowers to open on the smaller of the two quadruples. The wobbly stem was leaned against a kauri twig for its portrait.

The Column had been expecting HB Matthews' Caladenia "chloroleuca" but the marginal calli to the midlobe were all C. minor. The photograph below right gives a view of the part of the colony with two of the tall quadruples, both with one flower open and the plant supported by a dead mingimingi branch. Triples, twins and singles also feature and some Nematoceras leaves are visible to the left.

A phenomenon such as these quadruples poses many more questions than answers such as why has it happened here? Is it a mycorrhizal fungus causing some orchids to flourish uncharacteristically yet killing the mingimingi and making a kauri loving orchid disappear?