New Zealand Native Orchids

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Thelymitra hatchii

Sun Orchid

Tararua Forest Park 23 December 2007. Photo: Jeremy R. Rolfe
Photo: Jeremy R. Rolfe
Recorded distribution
Recorded distribution

Plant

Stout, leaf stiff, upright. Stem with up to six flowers.

Flowers

Pale to deep mauve. Column base dark reddish brown, top open horse shoe-shaped, notch at the rear. Top yellowish, rather ragged nobbly on the back. Cilia dense, usually yellow, sometimes white or pink.

Flowering

November - February.

Habitat

Lowland to alpine grasslands, dry clay banks, in gravel, under scrub, forest margins. Whangarei southwards

Conservation

Widespread, locally common, not threatened.

Notes

The stout upright leaf and horseshoe-shaped column make this quite distinct. A plant with crimson-pink cilia may simply be a colour form of T. hatchii although it is consistently smaller, its leaf arching.

Key features

Yellow topped horse shoe-shaped column top, dense yellow cilia.

Photos

Tararua Forest Park 23 December 2007. Photo: Jeremy R. Rolfe
Southern Tararua Range 14 December 2008. Photo: Jeremy R. Rolfe
Tararua Forest Park 23 December 2007. Photo: Jeremy R. Rolfe
Mt. Climie, Upper Hutt 8 January 2009. Photo: Jeremy R. Rolfe
Remutaka Summit Track 30 December 2014. Photo: Bill Campbell
Southern Tararua Range 14 December 2008. Photo: Jeremy R. Rolfe
Western Lake Road, Wairarapa 1 December 2019. Photo: Bill Campbell
Column. Photo: Unspecified
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Sun orchids (Thelymitra)
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