Plant: Stem and leaves often tinged red. Leaf short, quarter to half the 90 cm height of the flower stem, wide and tapering sharply, upright, black ribbed.

Flowers: up to 20 large blue mauve with prominent darker veins. Column white, top bronze, somewhat rectangular in side view, deeply cleft, reddish-orange to reddish-brown. Cilia sparse, white on lateral lobes that project forwards and upwards in a gentle curve.

Flowering: October to December.

Habitat: sea level to montane, dry tracksides. reported so far only from Northland, NW Nelson and Marlborough Sounds.

Conservation: vagrant.

Notes: the short leaf, when present, is distinct. A more robust plant than T. colensoi with larger flowers and a darker column. Two Northland forms have a similar flower.

Key features: pale flowers, column top rounded bronze with a deep rounded cleft, cilia sparse, leaf short broad.