Epilobium crassum Hook.f.
Robust, creeping, glabrous herb with stems to 10 cm long, occasionally branching and forming long, underground whitish rhizomes after flowering. Petioles winged. Lamina of lf oblanceolate to narrowly obovate, 1.2-4 × 0.5-1.4 cm. Floral tube 1.4-2.2 mm deep, glabrous. Petals white with pinkish veins, flushed pink after pollination, 5.1-7.5 × 2.7-5.2 mm. Capsule glabrous, 3.6-7.5 cm long; fruiting pedicel 3-8 cm long.
S.: from the St Arnaud Range and the Clarence R. and Awatere R., along and E. of the Main Divide to Mt Cook region, Mt Kurow.
Endemic.
Fine-grained, relatively stable, firm, and often moist, debris and broken rock, 600-1800 m.
FL Dec-Feb.
As suggested by its name, E. crassum has ± fleshy lvs and the lamina is very glossy and usually bright red or purple beneath. Raven and Raven placed E. antipodum Petrie, treated by Allan (1961) as a distinct sp., in synonomy under E. crassum.
