New Zealand Plant Conservation Network
  • Member login
  • Join
Facebook
  • Home
  • Flora
    • Flora species
    • Vascular
    • Non Vascular
    • Plant identification
    • Fungi
    • Make your own book
    • Quiz
  • Threats
    • Exotic Plants (Weeds)
    • Pest Animals
    • Other threats
  • Ecosystems
    • Plant communities
    • Ecosystem services
    • Novel ecosystems
  • Publications
    • Documents
    • Newsletter
    • Plant lists
    • Botanical Society journals
    • NZPCN publications
  • Conservation
    • Seedbank
    • Training
    • Restoration
    • Monitoring
    • Habitat protection
    • Funding
    • Botanic gardens
  • NZPCN
    • News
    • Trilepidea newsletter
    • Events
    • David Given Scholarship
    • Members
    • Council members
    • Awards
    • Shop
    • Donate
    • Favourite Plant
    • Why join NZPCN?
    • Join
  • Help
    • FAQ
    • Query
    • Glossary
  • Contact us

Search flora

You are here:
  1. Home
  2. Flora
  3. Flora species
  4. Thelymitra pauciflora

Thelymitra pauciflora

Mahurangi West.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 29/11/2008, 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>
Flowering plant, Kennedy Bay (January).<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Flowering plant, Kennedy Bay (January).<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Mangonui.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 29/10/2008, 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>
Thelymitra pauciflora (robust northern form), Lake Rotokawau, Karikari Peninsula, October 1990.<br>Photographer: Gillian M. Crowcroft, Licence: All rights reserved.
A Thelymitra pauciflora flower, Opuatia wetlands, November 1986.<br>Photographer: Peter J. de Lange, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Thelymitra pauciflora (pink flowers) at Coopers Beach.<br>Photographer: Bill Campbell, Date taken: 22/11/2007, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Thelymitra pauciflora at Coopers Beach.<br>Photographer: Bill Campbell, Date taken: 22/11/2007, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Thelymitra pauciflora on Spicer Road, Coopers Beach.<br>Photographer: Bill Campbell, Date taken: 22/11/2007, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Shenstone Block, Te Paki Stream Road, Te Paki.<br>Photographer: Bill Campbell, Date taken: 10/12/2013, 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>
Shenstone Block, Te Paki Stream Road, Te Paki.<br>Photographer: Bill Campbell, Date taken: 10/12/2013, 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>
Mahurangi West.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 29/11/2008, 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>
Mahurangi West.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 29/11/2008, 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>
Waitakere Range.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 04/11/2008, 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>
Kerikeri Airport.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 18/10/2009, 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>
Kerikeri Airport.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 18/10/2009, 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>
Kerikeri Airport.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 18/10/2009, 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>
Download PDF Comment on factsheet

NZPCN members can select up to 20 plant species and automatically create a full colour, fully illustrated A4 book describing them (in PDF format).

  • Find out more...
  • Join NZPCN...
Find in plant lists
iNaturalist NZ View observations Te Papa View specimens Flora of NZ Click here to view Donate Support NZPCN

Common name

sun orchid

Synonyms

None

Family

Orchidaceae

Authority

Thelymitra pauciflora R.Br.

Flora category

Vascular – Native

Endemic taxon

No

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.

THEPAU

Chromosome number

2n = 26

Current conservation status

  • Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017

The conservation 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). 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.

2012 | Not Threatened

Previous conservation statuses

2009 | Not Threatened

2004 | Not Threatened

Distribution

Indigenous. North, South, Stewart and Chatham Islands. Present in Australia where it occurs in Queensland, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

Habitat

Mostly coastal to lowland, rarely lower montane. Usually in very open shrubland, on clay pans, gumland scrub, forest margins, in ultramafic scree and in open grassland. This species is also commonly found in urban areas along street verges in bark gardens and wasteland.

Features

Glabrous, terrestrial orchid. Tubers 10-20 x 5-10 mm, ovoid, fleshy pinkish white to pinkish grey. Leaf 80-300 x 3-6(-12) mm, erect, fleshy, canaliculated, dark or light green with purplish to maroon base, often spotted with rust, abaxially prominently ribbed, ribs often maroon, sheathing at base, apex acute to acuminate. Inflorescence 0.15-0.6 m tall, 1-1.5(-3) mm diameter, stout but slender, straight, dark green to purple-green to reddish. Sterile bracts 1-2(-3), 15-50 x 3-5 mm, linear to linear-lanceolate, closely sheathing, acute to acuminate, green or maroon, sometimes purplish. Fertile bracts 4-15 x 2-5 mm, ovate-acuminate to obovate-acuminate, sheathing at pedicels, green to purple-green. Pedicels 1-10 mm long, slender. Ovary 5-12 x 2-4 mm, purple-green to red-green, narrow-obovoid. Flowers 1-8, 15-20 mm diameter, dark blue to mauve, sometimes white; opening only on very hot, still, sunny days, mostly entomophilous, tending to autogamous. Perianth segments 6-10 x 3-5 mm, concave, shortly apiculate; dorsal sepal lanceolate to ovate, obtuse to subacute; lateral sepals lanceolate to ovate, often asymmetric, acute; petals ovate to obovate, obtuse to subacute; labellum elliptic to lanceolate, acute, often smaller than other segments. Column 4.0-5.0 x 2.0-2.5 mm, erect from end of ovary, pale blue to dark pink; post anther lobe 1.8-2.5 x 1.0-1.5 mm, cucullate, tubular, gently curved, usually blackish-purple to reddish-brown, apex entire to emarginate, bright yellow; post anther lobe extension 0.4-0.7 mm; auxillary lobes absent or sometimes present as 2 tiny incurved spurs on the lower apical margin of the post-anther lobe; lateral lobes converging, 0.5-1.0 mm long, digitiform, porrect at base, bent sharply upwards near the middle at 90 degrees, each with a subterminal tuft of white (or mauve) cilia that touch the ventral side of the apex of the post-anther lobe; cilia 1-1.5 mm long. Anther inserted above central column, 2.0-2.5 x 1.0-1.5 mm. Stigma situated at base of column, 1.5-2 x 1.5-2 mm, ovate-quadrate, margins irregular. Capsules 8-15 x 3-6 mm, obovoid, erect, deeply ribbed.

Similar taxa

Thelymitra colensoi Hook.f. is rather similar and often confused with this species. However, T. colensoi, is an endemic species which is much smaller and more slender, with fewer flowers (up to 5) which almost never open, and then only one at a time. The flowers are certainly autogamous and probably also cleistogamous. The petals are pale blue to pale pink. The post-anther lobe is not as thin or as deeply inturned as T. pauciflora, pale blue to pink, grading through brown to reddish-brown with a pale yellow to yellow margin. The post anther lobe is rather similar to T. longifolia G.Forst though much more deeply cleft. Thelymitra colensoi is often known in New Zealand by its later synonym T. intermedia Berggren

Flowering

September - December

Flower colours

Blue, Violet/Purple

Fruiting

November - March

Propagation technique

Easily grown from tubers. Often naturalises in suitable habitats. Not a very attractive subject because the flowers tend only to open on very hot still days, and the leaves are usually infected with thelymitra rust. However, it is easily grown, in a well drained, sunny situation, and plants soon form small colonies through vegetative spread from the tubers.

Etymology

thelymitra: Woman’s hat

pauciflora: Few-flowered

Where To Buy

Not commercially available

Attribution

Fact Sheet prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange 14 April 2007. Description subsequently published in Rolfe & de Lange (2010). See also Jeanes (2004).

References and further reading

Jeanes, J. 2004: A revision of the Thelymitra pauciflora R.Br. (Orchidaceae) complex in Australia. Muelleria 19: 19-79.

Rolfe, J.R.; de Lange, P.J. 2010: Illustrated guide to New Zealand sun orchids, Thelymitra (Orchidaceae). Jeremy Rolfe, Wellington.

NZPCN Fact Sheet citation

Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Thelymitra pauciflora Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/thelymitra-pauciflora/ (Date website was queried)

▲ Back to top
  • Home
  • Flora
  • Threats
  • Ecosystems
  • Publications
  • Conservation
  • NZPCN
  • Help
  • Contact us

© 2023 New Zealand Plant Conservation Network • Website by RS

Coastlands Plant Nursery Wildlands

Website sponsor

  • Home
  • Flora
    • Flora species
    • Vascular
      • Ferns
        • King fern
        • True ferns
        • Adder's tongue ferns
        • Fork ferns and whisk ferns
        • Horsetails
      • Conifers
        • Celery pines
        • Kauri
        • Podocarps
          • Podocarpus
          • Dacrydium
          • Prumnopitys
          • Dacrycarpus
          • Halocarpus
          • Lepidothamnus
          • Manoao
        • Cypress
      • Flowering plants
        • Parasites
          • Leafy mistletoes
          • Pygmy mistletoes
            • Korthalsella flowers
            • Korthalsella hosts
            • Dispersal of Korthalsella
            • Associates of Korthalsella
          • Root parasites
          • Saprophytes
        • Epiphytes
          • NZ
            • Typical
            • Occasional
            • Hemi-epiphytes
            • Ephemeral
            • NZ list
        • Monocots
          • Orchids
            • Structure
          • Grasses
        • Dicots
          • Hebes
          • Kowhai
          • Coprosma
          • Beech
          • Rata
        • Carnivorous
        • Deciduous plants
        • Aquatic plants
      • Poisonous natives
      • Threatened plant lists
      • What's a vascular plant?
      • Club mosses
    • Non Vascular
      • Bryophytes
        • Liverworts
        • Mosses
        • Hornworts
      • Algae
        • Seaweeds
      • Lichens
    • Plant identification
      • Written descriptions
      • Experts
      • Plant keys
        • Key to parasitic plant genera
      • Collecting plants
        • Should I collect
        • Choosing a specimen
        • Field notes
        • Fresh plant material
        • Pressing and drying
        • Mounting specimens
        • Labelling specimens
    • Fungi
    • Make your own book
    • Quiz
  • Threats
    • Exotic Plants (Weeds)
      • Unwanted organisms
      • DOC weeds
      • Plant me instead
      • Pest Plant Accord
    • Pest Animals
      • Mammals
        • Mustelids
        • Rodents
        • Ungulates
        • Possums
      • Fish
      • Insects
    • Other threats
      • Natural events
        • Insects
      • Human induced
        • Habitat loss
        • Collection
        • Climate change
  • Ecosystems
    • Plant communities
      • Dunes
        • Volcanic
        • Coastal
          • Threats
          • Common species
          • Research on dunes
          • Pingao research
          • What you can do
      • Wetlands
        • Estuaries
          • Common estuarine species
          • Research on estuaries
        • Ephemeral
        • Restiad peat bogs
      • Forests
        • Kauri-podocarp-broadleaved
        • Podocarp broadleaved
        • Beech
      • Scrub/shrublands
        • Geothermal
          • Distribution of geothermal vegetation
          • Geothermal plants
          • Geothermal vegetation types
          • Threats to geothermal vegetation
        • Frost flat/hollow
        • Manuka fens
        • Gumlands
      • Grasslands
        • Tussock grasslands
      • Bare ground
        • Braided rivers
        • Alpine
        • Cliff
        • Scree and boulderfields
        • Shingle beaches
      • Herbfields
        • Saltpan
    • Ecosystem services
    • Novel ecosystems
  • Publications
    • Documents
    • Newsletter
    • Plant lists
      • Plant lists by region
      • Search plant lists
      • National plant lists
      • How to prepare a plant list
    • Botanical Society journals
    • NZPCN publications
  • Conservation
    • Seedbank
      • Project 1 - Pohutukawa, Rata and Myrtaceae
      • Project 2 - Alpine flora and the Forget-Me-Nots
      • Project 3 - Kowhai and its relatives
      • Project 4 - Podocarps and trees of the forest
    • Training
      • Module 1: Plant life
      • Module 2: Covenants
      • Module 3: Propagation
      • Module 4: Wetlands
      • Pilot course 2006
    • Restoration
      • Gardening
        • Being weed wise
        • Garden plants
          • Trees and shrubs
          • Broad-leaved herbs
          • Grass-like herbs
          • Climbers
          • Ferns
        • Attracting wildlife
        • Planting for lizards
          • Rules
      • Species recovery
        • Plant translocations
      • Ecological restoration
        • Case studies
          • Tavora Reserve
          • Waiwhakareke
      • Revegetation
      • Eco-sourcing
      • Find a restoration group
    • Monitoring
      • Number count
        • Number count method
        • Pros and cons of number counts
        • Data analysis and interpretation
      • Presence/absence surveys
        • Presence/absence survey methods
        • Pros and cons of presence/absence surveys
        • Data analysis and interpretation
      • Mapping spatial extent
        • Spatial extent mapping methods
        • Pros and cons of spatial extent mapping
        • Data analysis and interpretation
      • Photo points
        • Photo point guidelines
    • Habitat protection
      • Legal protection
        • Nga Whenua Rahui
        • QEII covenants
        • DOC Covenants
      • Animal pest control
      • Weed control
      • Fencing
    • Funding
    • Botanic gardens
  • NZPCN
    • News
    • Trilepidea newsletter
    • Events
      • Conference 2022
        • Conference programme summary
        • 2022 conference workshops
        • 2022 conference field trips
        • Code of conduct
        • COVID-19 information
        • 2022 conference sponsors
        • Abstract and poster submission
        • 2022 Conference venue and accommodation
        • Conference Workshop: Restoration Pathways
        • 2022 conference postponement
      • Conference 2019
      • Conference 2017
      • Conference 2015
        • Speakers
        • Workshops
        • Field trips
        • Charity auction
      • Conference 2013
        • Speakers
        • Timetable
      • 2023 Restoration Pathways Workshop
    • David Given Scholarship
      • David Given Scholarship Recipients
    • Members
    • Council members
      • NZPCN council member profiles
      • Council 2013
      • Council 2012
      • Council 2011
      • Council 2010
      • Council 2009
      • Council 2008
      • Council 2007
      • Council 2006
      • Council 2005
      • Council 2004
      • Council 2003
    • Awards
      • NZPCN Awards
        • 2019
        • 2018
        • 2017
        • 2016
        • 2015
        • 2014
        • 2013
        • 2012
        • 2011
        • 2010
        • 2009
        • 2008
        • 2007
        • 2006
        • 2005
        • 2022
    • Shop
    • Donate
    • Favourite Plant
    • Why join NZPCN?
    • Join
  • Help
    • FAQ
      • Joining the Network
      • The Network
      • Network website
      • New Zealand plants
      • The law
      • Your discoveries
    • Query
    • Glossary
  • Contact us