Spider orchids (Corybas)

Habitat: Confined to peat bogs, particularly wire rush bogs.

Key features: Peat bog habitat; lateral sepals and petals very reduced, dorsal sepal notched.

Habitat: Scrub and light forest.

Key features: Short tepals and tubular labellum, dorsal sepal pale and not cleft at the tip.

Habitat: Favours deep litter in relatively deep shade; kanuka, beech, taraire or even Douglas fir forest.

Key features: Apparent lack of petals or sepals, pearly top of dorsal sepal, small leaf.

Habitat: Clay banks, usually in moderate shade. Throughout.

Key features: Pale, frilly edge to the dark crimson, tubular labellum and the thin, undulate to smooth edged red-veined leaf.

Habitat: Deep litter and debris; often with C. trilobus or C. cheesemanii. Widespread.

Key features: Generally leafless, with white flower buried in the surface litter.

Habitat: Damp, shaded forest, often high rainfall. Throughout.

Key features: Thin, wavy sharp-pointed leaf and flower with long point to dorsal sepal parallelled by the thin sepals.

Habitat: Dry or well drained places with high fertility such as limestone; lowland to montane. Throughout.

Key features: Dark widely flared labellum, flower often hidden below leaf.

Habitat: Various forest, damp ground and moderate shade. Widespread, common.

Key features: Large flower, with a very broadly trowel shaped, striped labellum with lower edge often red rimmed and split into two “ears”.

Habitat: Moist forest floor, and shady manuka. Waikato and Bay of Plenty southwards.

Key features: Trowel-shaped, very pale labellum midlobe and maroon outer to the wings which are pale cream within, and prominent green cap of the dorsal sepal.

Habitat: Moist mountain beech forest and alpine fringes. Ruapehu to Nelson. Tolerates snow.

Key features: Flower with almost complete lack of red on the green rather translucent labellum.

Habitat: Forest, sporadic. Auckland to Volcanic Plateau but only recently recognised, so range not yet determined.

Key features: Dorsal sepal much longer than labellum and ending in point, flower whitish near the aperture.

Habitat: Beech forest where substrate is moist. Sea-level to 1500m.

Key features: Leaf wider than long, dorsal sepal protruding forward, longer than the labellum tube top, small flowers held well below the leaf.

Habitat: Dry areas under beech and other light canopy. Waikato southwards.

Key features: A very elongate narrow labellum midlobe with red wings and a dorsal sepal that is often somewhat narrow and peaked and sits loosely on the labellum top.

Habitat: Beech forest, shady sites beside streams. Sub-alpine to low alpine. Central North Island southwards.

Key features: Dorsal sepal jutting out from labellum, very dark colouration with a hairy midlobe.

Habitat: Seepages and small ponding areas in montane to sub-alpine beech forest, Currently known from Nelson Lakes Dstrict and northern Westland.

Key features: Dark flower, dorsal sepal not protruding beyond the labellum.

Habitat: Stream sides, in damp ground and moderate shade. Waikato southwards, widespread.

Key features: Long dorsal sepal, enclosing, dark maroon labellum with a hairy face and a greenish rim to the opening.

Habitat: Shrublands. Campbell Island, Chatham Islands and isolated locations in the lower North and South Islands.

Key features: Easily recognized by its ball shaped flower and mottled maroon dorsal sepal and outer labellum.

Habitat: Largely unknown, alpine grassland and scrub. Fiordland (Hump Ridge), Auckland and Campbell Is.

Key features: Distinctive flower with widely spaced stripes, very deep flared labellum.

Habitat: Permanently wet, mossy road banks; damp forest and wet tussock herb fields; dunes. Lowland to montane.

Key features: Short tepals, dark narrow labellum midlobe with in-rolled lateral margins

Habitat: Wet, mossy, shady stream banks. Northland.

Key features: The dark, almost bell shaped labellum is quite distinct.

Habitat: Calcareous siltstone, mudstone and limestone and fertile soils; streamsides, damp areas.

Key features: Large flower, dark labellum colour, ridged dorsal sepal.

Habitat: Streamsides, wet mossy rocks, lowland to montane. Volcanic Plateau southwards.

Key features: Dorsal sepal and labellum translucent with a weft of pale maroon streaks. Petals and sepals about equal.

Habitat: Calcareous siltstone, mudstone and limestone country; streamsides, damp seepages, roadsides. Taranaki and central North Island.

Key features: Flower sits above leaf, mostly green with patchy maroon in the throat.

Habitat: Wet, mossy stream banks often just above the flood line, waterfall spray zone and wet seepages. Coromandel and Kaimai ranges eastward to Urewera.

Key features: Ovary sitting above a clasping, sessile leaf, deep narrow midlobe narrowing to a point, surface hairless; auricle down pointing.

Habitat: Wet shady seepages, stream banks with good light; wet shady road cuttings. Whangarei south to Nelson and the West coast.

Key features: Hairy midlobe, flower well above leaf on a long ovary and forward pointing auricles.

Habitat: Wet alpine areas.

Key features: Round leaf, flowers above the leaf but separating from below, pale widely open labellum, petals much shorter than lateral sepals, labellum outer margin wavy.