Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica armstrongii Johnson ex J. B. Armst. in N.Z. Ctry J. 3, 1879, 59.

Type locality: "Upper Rangitata, J. F. Armstrong and W. Grey". Type: CM, "Rangitata Sources, 4-5000 ft., 1869, J. F. A."

Erect much-branched shrub to c. 1 m. tall. Ultimate branchlets 1·5-2 mm. diam., ± terete, yellow-green, not glossy; internodes 1-1·5 mm. long, partly exposed; nodal joint weakly marked or obscure. Lvs c. 1 mm. long, connate for ⅓ to ⅔ length, smoothly appressed when fresh, us. spreading widely and encircling branchlet when dry, apex truncate or rounded, abruptly tapering to slightly keeled acute tip, margins yellowish. Spikes c. 2-6 fld. Bracts 1-1·5 mm. long, obtuse or with small acute tip. Calyx 2-2.5 mm. long, anterior lobes completely fused into broad obtuse seg. sts with short secondary split. Corolla-tube ± = calyx. Capsule 3-3·5 × 1·5-2 mm., oval, subacute to obtuse, > calyx.

DIST.: S. Canterbury: Upper Rangitata, Clyde Valley, Mt. Jollie, Mackenzie Country, J. F. Armstrong; Otago: Mt. Kurow, 3000 D. Petrie.

This sp. has been extensively grown in gardens, presumably propagated by cuttings, and Cockayne and Allan (loc. cit.) doubted its occurrence as a wild plant. However there are, in Herb. Armstrong (CM), four perfectly matching sheets from localities in the vicinity of the Rangitata and in W, from Herb. Hector, there is a large folder of similar specimens labelled "V. tetragona, Canterbury"; the Haast specimens cited by Hooker under V. salicornioides are probably of the same kind. No later records from Canterbury are known. Petrie's collection from the north-east face of the Kurow Mts (A 8251) appears to include both H. armstrongii and H. annulata, but other records from southern localities are substantiated only by specimens from cultivated plants and need confirmation. Records from N.W. Nelson are based on specimens of H. ochracea.

V. armstrongii Kirk in T.N.Z.I. 11, 1879, 464, published 4 months after Armstrong's account, was based on plants from Wairau and Amuri in addition to Armstrong's Rangitata material. Kirk suggested that his sp. resembled a cross between salicornioides and hectori, using these names in wide senses. His Wairau and Amuri specimens have not been found but they may not have been conspecific with the Rangitata plant; the illustration of V. armstrongii Kirk in Gdnrs' Chron. No. 659, Aug. 12 1899, 137 does not well match Armstrong's type. However the Wairau Gorge plants (A 8242) referred by Cheeseman to V. salicornioides and discussed under that sp. resemble the true H. armstrongii in many respects. Present knowledge of these spp. is very unsatisfactory.