Wurmbea novae-zelandiae (Hook.f. ex Kirk) Lekhak et al. (2015: 81)

Heenan, Peter B., Macfarlane, Terry D., Case, Andrea L., Graham, Sean W., Vinnersten, Annika & Mitchell, Caroline, 2017, Morphological and phylogenetic relationships of the threatened geophyte Wurmbea novae-zelandiae (Colchicaceae) from New Zealand, with notes on typification, Phytotaxa 307 (2), pp. 123-132 : 129-130

Wurmbea novae-zelandiae (Hook.f. ex Kirk) Lekhak et al. (2015: 81) ≡ Anguillaria novae-zelandiae Hook.f. ex Kirk

(1878: App. xl–xli). Type (lectotype, here designated):— New Zealand, in swamps near Christchurch, Rangitata, [no date] Armstrong per Haast (WELT 60323 [Herb. T. Kirk]). Syntype: Rangitata, [no date] Von Haast (WELT 60333

[Herb. D. Petrie ex Herb. T. Kirk]). ( Fig. 1 )

= Iphigenia novae-zelandiae Baker (1879: 451) . Type (lectotype, here designated):— New Zealand, Canterbury Plains, 1867 Armstrong per Haast 298 (K 000400298). Syntype:— Canterbury Plains, New Zealand, December 1850 Lyall (K 001067833).

Description:—Summer-green geophyte, glabrous, 10–50(–100) mm tall. Corm 7–9 × 5–8 mm, obovoid, enclosed in persistent, reddish brown, papery sheaths. Stem annual, 0.7–0.9 mm in diameter, shorter than leaves. Leaves 3, lowermost surrounded basally by membranous cataphyll, upper two cauline; sheath closed below, broad and ± pouchlike, narrowing gradually above; lamina 20–90(–120) × 1–2(–8) mm, linear, deeply channelled or folded, apex terete; below flower 1(–2) smaller, ± bract-like cauline leaves, usually green but rarely petaloid. Flower usually solitary, rarely 2, terminal, hermaphrodite. Peduncle 6–50 mm long, 0.4–0.9 mm in diameter, elongating at maturity. Tepals 3–4(–6), free, 4.0–5.5 × 1.3–2 mm, oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, 2 to 5 ± similar, white or sometimes slightly pink, marcescent but 1 ± leaf-like, with abaxial surface green in distal half and with reddish markings at base, adaxial surface white; lateral veins forked, a short one on each side ending in a submarginal gland which exudes clear nectar. Stamens 3–4(–6), as many as tepals; filaments 2.3–2.8 mm long, terete above and 0.15–0.2 mm in diameter, slightly flattened below and 0.3–0.4 mm diam, adnate to tepals in lower 1/4, inserted into a fovea between nectary lobes; anthers 0.6–0.7 mm long, shortly oblong, yellow, dehiscing by lateral slits. Ovary 2.7–2.9 × ca. 2.5 mm, green, subglobose, with 1–3 locules; styles 1–3, 1.0– 1.2 mm long, widely divergent, recurving as flowering proceeds, inner surface stigmatic for up to half the length, separating with the valves of the ripe capsule; ovules 5–8 on two axile placentae in each locule. Capsule 4–10 × 2–6 mm, ovoid, sulcate, pericarp at first green and fleshy, becoming light brown and dry, horny and faintly transversely rugose; valves 2–6, dehiscing both loculicidally and septicidally. Seeds ca. 1 mm in diameter, globose, minutely reticulate, on long capillary funicle. Chromosome number 2n = 20 ( Hair & Beuzenberg 1966).

Representative specimens:— NORTH ISLAND: Hawke’s Bay. Te Waka Range, January 1972 A.P. Druce s.n. ( CHR208607 !). SOUTH ISLAND: Canterbury. Burnham , 6 December 1886 T. Kirk s.n. ( WELT60325 !) ; Grassmere , December 1889 J.D. Enys s.n. ( WELT60324 !) ; Burnham , [no date] T. Kirk s.n. (AK3264!) ; Lake Georgina , 7 December 1956 R. Mason & N.T. Moar 4477 ( CHR96113 !) ; Lake Grassmere , [no date] J.D. Enys s.n. (AK3263!) ; Mt Hay , 7 January 1965 A.J. Healy s.n. ( CHR153736 !) ; Lake Coleridge , 13 February 1963 H.E. Connor s.n. ( CHR140005 !) ; Spider Lakes , 26 November 2001 M. Davis s.n. ( CHR525500 !) ; Spider Lakes , 29 November 2011 P.B. Heenan s.n. ( CHR554363 !) ; Rangitata Valley , 11 November 1978 D.R. Given 11402 & K. C. Given ( CHR355782 !) ; Templeton Golf Course, Islington , 1 October 2012 C. Meurk s.n. ( CHR620740 !) ; Bankside Reserve , 12 December 1969 L.B. Moore s.n. ( CHR201488 !) ; Ben Ohau Range , November 1961 R. C.B. Prickett s.n. ( CHR325265 !) ; Mt Guy , 19 December 2007 M. Davis s.n. ( CHR621765 !) ; Pukaki Downs , 14 February 1986 B.P.J. Molloy s.n. ( CHR617546 !) ; Lake Pukaki , 23 December 1970 B.H. Macmillan & E.M. Chapman s.n. ( CHR217893 !, AK135162!) ; Glenmore Station, Lake Tekapo , December 1980 P.N. Johnson s.n. ( CHR363830 !) ; Lake Tekapo, 11 December 1965 A.J. Healy s.n. ( CHR168042 !). Otago. Shag Point , January 1984 J. Ward s.n. ( CHR416303 !) ; Nenthorn , 15 December 2001 G. Loh s.n. ( CHR609387 !) ; Otepopo, [no date] D. Petrie s.n. ( WELT60332 !). Southland. Dunrobin Red Tussock Covenant , 9 January 1995 P.J. de Lange s.n. (AK231672!) .

Distribution:—This species is known from one collection in Hawke’s Bay on eastern North Island, and in South Island from several sites in inland and lowland Canterbury, coastal Otago, and one site in Southland.

Habitats:—Occurs in damp seepages such as those draining wetlands and the margins of lakes and tarns. In a damp seepage at Spider Lakes (Canterbury) it occurred with the indigenous Carex breviculmis Brown (1810: 242) , Coprosma atropurpurea ( Cockayne & Allan 1926: 22) Moore (1974: 141) , Leucopogon fraseri Cunningham (1839: 47) , Muehlenbeckia axillaris ( Hooker 1847: 278) Endlicher (1848: 51) , Ophioglossum coriaceum ( Cunningham 1837: 361) , Psychrophila obtusa ( Cheeseman 1901: 312) Weber (1982: 365) , and Wahlenbergia albomarginata ( Hooker 1852: t. 818) subsp. albomarginata and the naturalised Festuca rubra Linnaeus (1753: 74) , Linum catharticum Linnaeus (1753: 281) and Pilosella officinarum Vaillant (1754: 703) .

Conservation status:—The status of Threatened, Nationally Endangered with the qualifiers A(3/1) (total area of occupancy ≤ 10 ha and a predicted decline of 10–50%), DP (data poor), and RR (range restricted) is endorsed (de Lange et al. 2013). Data poor refers to uncertainty regarding recruitment and population sizes and range restricted refers to the specific habitat occupied.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Wurmbea novae-zelandiae. a, damp seepage (centre) where W. novae-zelandiae occurs (Spider Lakes, Canterbury); b, flowering plant; c, ovoid corm with fine roots at base; d, flower nestled in crown of two basal leaves; e, flower with two locules and styles; f, flower with three locules and styles; g, leaf-like petal; h, petals showing position of nectaries 1/3 from base; i, capsules with one locule and two valves (left), two locules and four valves (centre), and three locules and six valves (right); j, small round seeds with a reticulate surface.