Epilobium melanocaulon Hook.
Crisp herb, branched at the base and sometimes also above, 10-30 cm tall, from a stout taproot. Stems usually purplish black, sometimes green, with dense strigillose hairs in lines. Lamina of lf narrow-elliptic to elliptic, 3-12-(20) × 1-4-(6) mm. Floral tube 0.2-0.6 mm deep, glabrous. Petals white, flushed pink after pollination, 5-6.5 × 2.3-3 mm. Capsules glabrous, 1.8-3.8 cm long; fruiting pedicel 0-0.9 cm long.
N.: area of Lake Rotorua S. to the Kaweka, Ruahine, and Tararua Ranges; S.: Buller, Wairau, and Awatere catchments, mainly near and E. of the Main Divide S. to the upper Clutha R., Kingston, and Lake Manapouri, scattered and rather rare in Westland, naturalised in Christchurch.
Endemic.
Abundant in shingly riverbeds, moraines and occasionally screes, c. 110-1200 m.
FL Jan-Mar.
The prominently lobed lvs of E. melanocaulon are distinctive. As with several other spp. red- and green-leaved plants occur in the same population. Raven and Raven placed E. polyclonum Hausskn., accepted by Allan (1961) as a distinct sp., in synonomy under E. melanocaulon and did not accept var. viride Cockayne et Allan as distinct either.
