Gentiana astonii Petrie
Type locality: Valley of Ure River. Type: W, 4726, B. C. Aston, April 24, 1915.
Slender spreading to erect perennial with slender to stout root, stock simple to multicipital. Stems several to ∞, slender, sparingly or much branched, 8-20-(30) cm. long, rarely up to 45 cm., finely striate, margined. Basal and lower lvs in rather crowded pairs, almost connate at base, rather flaccid, 1·5-2 cm × 1-2.5 mm.; linear or slightly expanded at tips, acute or subacute, margins ± recurved, midrib rather obscure; petiole short, slender, expanding to base. Cauline lvs in several to many similar but smaller connate pairs. Fls few to several, us. solitary, on slender pedicels ± 10 mm. long. Calyx cut 4/5 way into linear-subulate unequal lobes ± 10 mm. long, sinus rounded. Corolla white, c. 15 mm. long, deeply cut into oblong-lanceolate to narrow-obovate, subacute, apiculate, distinctly veined lobes.
DIST.: S. Limestone areas in headwaters of Clarence, Swale, Ure, Dee rivers; near Waipara, A. J. Healy; Mt. St. Mary, Waitaki Hydro, C. J. Burrows.
Petrie (loc. cit. 188) says: "On open ridges, Mr. Aston writes, the stems are erect and stunted; in the scrub they are elongated and more or less entangled. One specimen rooted in a rock-crevice had a remarkably stout root, giving off a tuft of matted branches that hung down the slope for some 15 in."
