Gastrodia cunninghamii Hook.F.

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.

Dark shaded places in deep woods, usually in beech forests, on North, South, Stewart and Chatham Islands.

The starchy roots are eaten.

Can be grown by seedlings.