Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica pulvinaris (Hook. f.) Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. 2, 1876, 964.

Type locality: Mt. Torlesse. Type: K, Haast 452.

Perennial herb from stout woody stock; stems woody, rooting, giving off ∞ slender erect branches us. tightly compacted into dense, hoary, grey-green cushion 2-4 cm. high and up to 10 cm. or more diam., sts laxer and forming small patch; branches again much branched towards tips, 3-5 mm. diam. including lvs. Lvs closely irregularly imbricate, us. ± loosely spreading, linear-oblong to linear-spathulate, 2.5-4 × ± 1 mm., obtuse to subacute; margins and upper part of inner surface sparsely hispid with long, coarse, stiff, white hairs, outer surface sparsely hispid in upper part or glab. except for tuft at tip. Bracts 3-4 mm. long, linear, very similar to calyx-lobes. Calyx 3-4 mm. long, deeply divided into 5-(6) linear lobes 2.5-3·5 mm. long; lobes hispid on margins and outer surface especially towards tip. Corolla white, 5-6-(8) mm. long, salverform; tube ± ═ or much > calyx; lobes 5-6, 1·5-2.5 mm. long, broadly obovate-oblong, rounded to subacute. Capsule c. 2.5-3 mm. long, hairy at apex at least when young.

DIST.: S. Common in montane to subalpine open grassland and fellfield on mountains of Nelson, Marlborough and Canterbury, probably extending to Otago.

The extent of the occurrence of the sp. in Otago is uncertain; published records are unreliable because of confusion with P. thomsonii while scraps in mixed herbarium collections are insufficient evidence. Buchanan (T.N.Z.I. 14, 1882, 352, t. 32, f. 2) when describing P. thomsonii from Mt. Alta recorded and figured P. pulvinaris from the same locality.

The sp. is disconcertingly variable in the distribution of hairs on the lf-surfaces. In most plants lvs are hispid on the inner surface and tip with the outer surface glab. or more sparsely hispid, but all collections seen from Lead Hill have hairs on the outer lf-surface only. When the surface hairs occur only at the extreme tip the lvs resemble those of P. ciliolata, but are narrower with longer fringing cilia.