Thelymitra aemula, commonly called the gumland sun orchid, is a species of orchid in the family Orchidaceae that is endemic to New Zealand. It has a single erect, dark green leaf with a reddish base and up to twenty or more pale mauve to dark sky blue flowers. It is similar to T. ixioides but has a differently coloured lobe on top of the anther.
Thelymitra aemula is a tuberous, perennial herb with a single erect, dark green, linear to lance-shaped leaf NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. Between three and ten, sometimes twenty or more pale mauve to dark sky blue flowers, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide are borne on a flowering stem sometimes up to 800sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 tall. The column is white near its base but mauve to violet with a brown band near the top. The lobe on the top of the anther is yellow and the side lobes have dense, brush-like white hairs. Flowering occurs from November to February.[1] [2]
Thelymitra aemula was first formally described in 1919 by Thomas Frederic Cheeseman from a plant collected near Birkdale and the description was published in Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute. The specific epithet (aemula) is Latin word meaning "emulating" or "rivalling".[3]
The gumland sun orchid grows in sparsely vegetated places in small colonies between Waikato and the tip of the North Island.