Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica imbricata Petrie in T.N.Z.I. 48, 1916, 189 non Woerlein in Ber. bot. Ver. Landshut 8, 1882, 199.

Type locality: Mt. Cleughearn. Type: W, 5345, J. Crosby Smith.

Erect, much-branched, round-headed shrub 4-6 dm. tall. Branchlets 2-2.5 mm. diam., ± terete, rather rigid, glossy; internodes c. 1 mm. long, entirely hidden; nodal joint well-marked. Lvs c. 1·5 mm. long, connate up to 1/3 length, broad-ovate, thick, closely appressed, ribbed, ± keeled, tip rounded and incurved. Bracts 2 mm. long, ovate, obtuse, ribbed. Calyx c. 2 mm. long, anterior lobes oblong, obtuse, ribbed, free for 1/2 to ⅔ length. Corolla-tube ± = calyx. Capsule c. 3 mm. long, oval, obtuse, = or slightly > calyx.

DIST.: S.

Petrie records: "Mount Cleughearn and Mount Burns, Fiord County at 2,500-4,000 ft.; J. Crosby Smith! Eyre Mountains, Lake County; D. L. Poppelwell! This plant appears to have been in cultivation for a number of years but its wild habitat was till recently unknown." Only material from Mt. Cleughearn has been seen. Petrie says "flowers not seen" and the type collection bears only a few old capsules but there are fragments of a flowering infl., including several corollas, in a packet. A later collection (CM, A. Wall, Feb. 1926), also in old fr., appears to be identical. Cockayne and Allan (loc. cit.) place the sp. close to H. poppelwellii but suggest that it could be a hydrid between the latter sp. and H. hectori.