General Information

COMMON NAMES: White Ground Orchid GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE New Guinea - Cook Islands (Rarotonga) COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Native; S.Group only (Rarotonga only, mountains); Land, mountains (mid-elevation) SIGNIFICANCE LIST: ; Locally endangered KEY FEATURES: Erect ground orchid to 1m, with ascending leaves emerging serially along a long stem, early leaves short, later leaves to 65cm. Flower-stalk lateral, not basal. Flowers 5-15, white, weak-petalled, 2.5cm long. SIMILAR SPECIES: See under Phaius tankervilleae.

Cook Islands Distribution

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Southern Group: Present    Makatea: -
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
+	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Northern Group: -
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW
-	-	-	-	-	-

Phaius terrestris (Linnaeus, 1759)
SYNONYMS: Phaius amboinensis; Epidendrum terrestre [O]

TAXONOMY: PLANTAE; ANTHOPHYTA (=Angiospermae); LILIOPSIDA (=Monocotyledones); LILIIDAE; Orchidales; ORCHIDACEAE

Vouchers:
None Recorded.

References:
Special Reference: Detailed in Lewis & Cribb (1989) Orchids of Vanuatu, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew; and in Smith (1991) Flora Vitiensis Nova, National Tropical Botanical Garden, Kauai.

p.5/475 A.C.Smith - Flora Vitiensis Nova
p.37 Wilder - Flora of Rarotonga
p.384c Whistler - Ethnobotany of the Cook Islands

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zupB04a, zM02, zD02

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