Sun orchids (Thelymitra)

Habitat: Clays, dappled or full sun; scrub or forest margins. Widespread.

Key features: Spotted petals, rounded column top with a warty back.

Habitat: Well lit scrub or forest tracks, roadsides, can extend to montane zones. South to Hokitika.

Key features: Spotted petals, column top open ragged, tipped red or yellow.

Habitat: Lowland to montane bogs and damp ground. Throughout.

Key features: Striped petals, curled naked, yellow or white column arms.

Habitat: Sea level to montane, wetlands, peat, damp scrub.

Key features: Striped petals, column arms angular with few yellow cilia.

Habitat: Open scrubland. Northland to Banks Peninsula.

Key features: Pink or yellow flowers, naked column arms, open, ragged column top.

Habitat: Lowland to montane wetlands, scrub, open forest. Auckland area south.

Key features: Column white below, open at the top, violet to red, steeply sloping backwards, cilia sparse, yellow, plant robust.

Habitat: Found on north facing bare compacted sands or clays, protected from wind. Far north, rare.

Key features: Spiral leaf, metallic blue flower, yellow, bulbous, naked column arms and large yellow pollinia.

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

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

Habitat: Damp or dry ground - open kauri and gumland scrub in the Northland south to Nelson.

Key features: Column top scarcely domed over, deeply cleft with long column arms.

Habitat: Scrub and clay areas. Northland to Waikato.

Key features: Erect column with yellow rounded top meeting at a denticulate slot.

Habitat: Sea level to montane, dry tracksides. reported so far only from Northland, NW Nelson and Marlborough Sounds.

Key features: Pale flowers, column top rounded bronze with a deep rounded cleft, cilia sparse, leaf short and broad.

Habitat: Lowland to montane, peat bogs, gumland scrub, forests and clay banks.

Key features: Column top rounded, deeply notched, brown with yellow tip, leaf twisted to one side.

Habitat: Lowland to alpine clays, in forest, scrub, grassland, sunny banks and tracksides.

Key features: Column top rounded black with a then usually yellow tipped rounded margin; leaves strongly ribbed, broad, lax, although a common form has consierably narrower flat leaves.

Habitat: Sea level to montane, in association with beech. Distribution uncertain as often confused with other purple stemmed Thelymitra.

Key features: Plants small clumped, leaves erect, flowers small, whitish, column tall erect.

Habitat: Lowland to montane, clay banks, forest or open scrub. Widespread, common.

Key features: Column top distinctly notched, black with a strong yellow tip; leaves short, narrow, arching.

Habitat: Open clay areas amongst scrub. Widespread.

Key features: Column top bright orange, rather than yellow, deeply cleft and the flowers intensely coloured.

Habitat: Lowland scrub and clay areas. Northland, local, rare.

Key features: Column deeply cleft, lack of cilia on column arms.

Habitat: Wetlands, thriving in black ooze. Kaitaia northwards, local.

Key features: Peaty wetland habitat, column violet, cleft at the top, column arms with crinkly cilia.

Habitat: Lowland damp scrub and tracksides. Kaitaia northwards.

Key features: Dark leaves, stems and flowers, column pale mauve with dark band rounded at the top. Top with a deep, narrow cleft tipped with a broad, yellow band.

Habitat: Lowland, scrub on clays. Northland.

Key features: Leaf rough, column erect, scarcely rounded over to a broad, yellow margin, with a pair of short, broad teeth.