Flora of New Zealand Series

Robust rhizomatous herb, often well-branched near base and above, ascending 25-140 cm, sometimes forming leafy stolons, strigillose, densely so in the infl. Stems strigillose all round or rarely only on the elevated lines decurrent from margins of petioles. Lamina of lf narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, 30-80 × 5-13 mm. Floral tube 1.3-2 mm deep, with a conspicuous ring of long hairs inside. Petals white, often flushed pink or rose-purple, 7.5-14 × 5-10 mm. Capsule grey-strigillose, (4.5)-6.5-9.5 cm long; fruiting pedicel 1-2 cm long.

N.; S.; St.: throughout but local and mainly coastal in Westland, Otago, and Southland; Ch.

Also indigenous to S.E. Australia and Tasmania.

Swamps, marshes, sandy river banks, often associated with grasses and sedges, or among clumps of Typha, from sea level to 600-(900) m.

FL Dec-Apr.