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  4. Orthoceras novae-zeelandiae

Orthoceras novae-zeelandiae

Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 13/12/2001, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Tararua Forest Park.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 01/02/2008, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Tararua Forest Park.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 01/02/2008, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Tararua Forest Park.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 01/02/2008, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Orthoceras novae-zeelandiae.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Licence: All rights reserved. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 13/12/2001, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 05/03/2005, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Flower bud. Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 18/11/2007, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Erua Forest.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 17/01/2009, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Erua Forest.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 17/01/2009, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Erua Forest.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 17/01/2009, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 21/02/2016, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 21/02/2016, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 25/02/2017, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 25/02/2017, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 25/02/2017, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Orthoceras.<br>Photographer: Nicholas J. D. Singers, Licence: All rights reserved.
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Common name

horned orchid

Synonyms

Diuris novae-zeelandiae A.Rich., Orthoceras caput-serpentis Colenso, Orthoceras rubrum Colenso, Orthoceras solandri Lindl., Orthoceras strictum f. viride Hatch

Family

Orchidaceae

Authority

Orthoceras novae-zeelandiae (A.Rich.) M.A.Clem., D.Jones et Molloy

Flora category

Vascular – Native

Endemic taxon

Yes

Endemic genus

No

Endemic family

No

Structural class

Orchids

NVS code

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

ORTNOV

Chromosome number

2n = 42, 44

Current conservation status

  • Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017

The threat classification status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2017 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2012 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: By Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, John W. Barkla, Shannel P. Courtney, Paul D. Champion, Leon R. Perrie, Sarah M. Beadel, Kerry A. Ford, Ilse Breitwieser, Ines Schönberger, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Peter B. Heenan and Kate Ladley. Please note, threat classifications are often suggested by authors when publications fall between NZTCS assessment periods – a suggested threat classification status has not been assessed by the NZTCS panel.

Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

2017 | Not Threatened

Previous conservation statuses

2012 | Not Threatened

2009 | Not Threatened

2004 | Not Threatened

Distribution

Endemic. North and South Islands. In the South Island mainly westerly and recorded as far south as Hokitika

Habitat

Coastal to lower montane (up to 800 m a.s.l.). Usually in very sunny sites on open, free draining soils or clay banks with little associated taller vegetation. Often found in urban areas on mostly bare roadside cuttings.

Features

Terrestrial, usually solitary, glabrous, perennial tuberous herb. Plant at flowering up to 900 mm tall. Tuber up to 50 x 10 mm ovoid, ovoid-ellipsoid. Stem fleshy dark green, red-green, to brown-green, stiffly erect, rather wiry, axis of raceme usually flexuous. Leaves fleshy, suberect to spreading, 10-20 x 3-6 mm, dark green, dark red-green to brown-green, basal third closely sheathing, linear-lanceolate to linear, channelled, apex acute. Inflorescence racemose up to 200 mm long and 2-12-flowered; flowers more or less equidistant subtended by closely sheathing leaf-like bracts. Perianth colour variable, mostly green or red-green, sometimes greenish-yellow. Dorsal sepal uppermost, 10-15 x 9-14 mm, very broad, and arched over column, distinctly cucullate and deeply concave, subacute; lateral sepals 20-50 mm long, 0.5 mm diameter, narrow-linear, semi-terete, channelled, erect to divergent. Petals very short, narrow-oblong, flat, apex mostly notched, occasionally entire, more or less hidden under dorsal sepal. Labellum spreading, deflexed, firmly fleshy to almost coriaceous, green, red-green, yellow or black, trilobed, margins smooth, lateral lobes broad, oblique; mid-lobe larger, ovate; median callus yellow, restricted to near base, shortly conical with a thickened inturned, rounded apex, base of mid-lobe usually bearing two small calli. Column short, column-wings present as two lateral, linear processes, more or less papillose. almost as long as anther. Anther dorsal, taller than stigma, pollinia ill-defined, pollen granular. Stigma disc-shaped; rostellum prominent, acute.

Manaaki Whenua Online Interactive Key

Key to native orchids of New Zealand

Similar taxa

None.

Flowering

July - March

Flower colours

Green, Red/Pink

Fruiting

November - May

Propagation technique

Easily grown in a sunny, free draining soil. Excellent in pots. Should not be removed from the wild.

Etymology

orthoceras: Straight horn

novae-zeelandiae: Of New Zealand

Where To Buy

Not commercially available.

Taxonomic notes

The distinction between O. novae-zeelandiae and O. strictum R.Br. seems very slight and dubious. Orthoceras strictum is said to differ by its longer floral bract and more narrowly pointed labellum. Similar plants have been found in New Zealand, and there is often a gradation between broad and more narrowly pointed labellum apices present within populations.

Attribution

Description adapted from Moore and Edgar (1970).

References and further reading

Moore, L.B.; Edgar, E. 1970: Flora of New Zealand. Vol. II. Government Printer, Wellington.

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