Flora of New Zealand Series

European eyebright

Erect, rather bushy, many-branched annual herb to c. 15 cm tall; stems single. Stem and branches covered with retrorse, curly hairs; lower internodes usually much > lvs. Lvs subsessile, to c. 5 × 3 mm, ovate, broadly triangular, broad-ovate or oblong, glabrous or nearly so, lobed or deeply crenate-serrate, minutely ciliolate; teeth of lobes ± obtuse, or in upper lvs and bracts acute to acuminate. Fls in axils of middle and upper lvs. Pedicels c. 0.5 mm long. Calyx 4-6 mm long; lobes = or almost = tube, narrow-triangular or lanceolate, acute or acuminate, ribbed, ciliolate, accrescent. Corolla 6-7.5 mm long; tube and throat of limb yellow; lobes mauve or whitish with dark veins, hairy outside; lower lip > upper lip; middle lobe of lower lip > lateral lobes, oblong, strongly emarginate. Anthers brown; margins pilose; awns very unequal. Capsule c. = calyx, 3.5-6.5 mm long, oblong, ± hairy above, ciliate; apex rounded, truncate to somewhat retuse. Seed 1.2-1.6 mm long, narrowly ellipsoid-oblong, ribbed.

N.: Haunted Whare (Tongariro National Park); S.: Otago Peninsula and Balclutha district (Otago), around Gore and Waituna Lagoon (Southland).

N. and C. Europe 1942

Pasture and indigenous tussock grassland.

FL Feb-Mar.

European eyebrights are a notoriously difficult group and no attempt has been made to identify the infraspecific taxon represented in N.Z.