Rare orchid found in South Island

"rare endangered North Island native orchid has been rediscovered in the South Island.

... Georgina Upson, of Nelson, found the 10cm orchid while searchingscrubland at the base of Farewell Spit.

... Upson presented photographic evidence of her find of Pterostylispuberula... She... recognised the plant as one only found in the far north of the North
Island and near Thames... She was looking for another orchid when she stumbled across a colony of 120 plants, which were last seen south of Motueka 20 years ago.

Before her discovery only 200 of the plants were known to exist in the North Island...

the tiny plant lived in poor soil amid manuka and gorse scrub... up there -- it's windy and cold and exposed, an unpleasant place, and will
take quite a lot of work to relocate it...

unusual to find a plant so far outside its known range"

FULL STORY URL : http://www.stuff.co.nz/thepress/4357481a19754.html