Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Asparagales Link
Family
Orchidaceae Juss.
Genus
Gastrodia R.Br.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Gastrodia cunninghamii Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 251 (1853)
Synonymy:
  • = Gastrodia leucopetala Colenso, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 18: 268 (1885 [1886])
Vernacular Name(s):
Black orchid; Hūperei; Māuku-uku; Perei; Uhiperei
 Description

Plant at fl. to c. 100 cm. tall. Swollen rhizomes long-lived and extensively branched, individual parts to 25 × 5 cm. Stem erect, stout or slender. Scale lvs widely spaced. Raceme often long and fls ∞ (e.g. to 40 or more), erect to ± drooping. Per. c. 14 mm. long, brownish or greenish mottled with paler knobs, adjacent plants sts contrasting in colour; lobes slightly thickened marginally. Lateral sepals connate little above the gibbous base but their margins lying close together. Labellum ± oblong, long-adnate to per.-tube; long median calli crested; margin undulate and ± lobed, membr. above, thickened and twisted in the lower adnate part. Column very short, wing represented only by a minute ± curved process; anther short, operculate, filament transversely pleated at back; stigma immediately below anther and ultimately covered by it.

[From: Moore and Edgar (1970) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 2.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Phenology

Flowering: Nov.–Dec.–Feb.

 Bibliography
Colenso, W. 1886 ("1885"): A description of some newly-discovered and rare indigenous plants: being a further contribution towards the making known the botany of New Zealand. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 18: 256–287.
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Not Threatened]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [Not Threatened]
Hooker, J.D. 1852–1853 ("1853"): The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. II. Flora Novae-Zelandiae. Part I. Flowering plants. Lovell Reeve, London.
Parsons, M.J.; Douglass, P.; Macmillan, B.H. 1998: Current Names List for wild Gymnosperms, Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons (except Grasses) of New Zealand as used in Herbarium CHR. Version 1, to 31 Dec 1995. Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln, Canterbury, New Zealand.