Kermadec Islands, North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands: Abundant throughout. Sea-level to 2500 ft. October–December.
There appear to be differences in the shape and size of the calli on the lip, the shape of its extremity, and the extent to which the margin is crisped. The fertilisation has been described by Thomson in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xi. 422.
9. PRASOPHYLLUM, R. Br.
Terrestrial glabrous herbs. Root of globose or ovoid tubers. Leaf solitary; sheath usually long; lamina terete, long or short, sometimes reduced to a short erect point. Flowers small, sessile in a lax or dense spike, reversed so that the lip is uppermost, usually abruptly bent at the top of the ovary and consequently spreading or reflexed. Upper sepal (inferior by the reversion of the flower) lanceolate or oblong, concave, usually arched over the column; lateral (superior) as long or rather longer, lanceolate or linear, free or more or less connate. Petals equalling the sepals or shorter, lanceolate or linear. Lip superior, sessile or shortly clawed, or sessile on the produced foot of the column, usually erect at the base and concave, spreading or recurved above, ovate or lanceolate, undivided; margins entire or undulate; disc with an adnate plate or longitudinally thickened along the median line. Column very short, not winged, but furnished with 2 erect lateral lobes; rostellum usually long, erect. Anther erect, placed behind the rostellum which often exceeds it, 2-celled; pollinia attached by a linear caudicle to the rostellum.
Species about 30, all confined to Australia, with the exception of one from New Caledonia and four from New Zealand, two of which seem to be the same as Australian species. The genus is closely allied to Microtis, but is at once distinguished by the reversed flowers and large lateral lobes to the column.
| A. Euprasophyllum. Lip sessile at the base of the column. Perianth ⅓–⅕ in. long. | |
| Tall, 1–3 ft. high. Flowers ¼–⅓ in. Lip large, with a conspicuous recurved lamina; adnate plate not nearly reaching the tip | 1. P. patens. |
| Smaller, 4–12 in. Flowers ⅕ in. Lip shorter, with a smaller recurved lip; adnate plate extending almost to the tip | 2. P. Colensoi. |
| B. Genoplesium. Leaf reduced to a sheathing bract just under the spike. Lip articulated on to a flat ribband-like projection from the base of the column, usually mobile. Flowers very small, 110–112 in. long. | |
| Perianth pointing downwards, green. Lateral sepals ovate-lanceolate, not tipped with a gland. Lip oblong | 3. P. pumilum. |
| Perianth horizontal, reddish. Lateral sepals narrow-lanceolate, acuminate, tipped by a minute gland. Lip lanceolate | 4. P. rufum. |
