Flora of New Zealand Series

Primary root usually short-lived, sometimes taproot persisting; adventitious roots usually numerous, sometimes 0. Stem simple, ± subterranean, to 2 cm diam., stout, erect, with brown hairs at apex. Lvs radical, in usually flat rosettes; petiole broad, flat. Lamina 1-7-(11) × 0.3-2.7-(4) cm, elliptic to spathulate or oblanceolate, submembranous or subcoriaceous; main veins 3; margin almost entire or distantly toothed, sometimes with small rounded pinnate lobes; lf hairs short and stiff, few to many, sometimes confined to margins or in transverse lines or patches on upper surface, usually 0 on undersurface or confined to midrib, occasionally over whole undersurface; base attenuate; apex obtuse or subacute. Scape 3-12-(22) cm long, covered with short appressed hairs. Spike to 3 cm long, usually dense, (2)-many-flowered and much longer than wide. Bracts 2.5-3.5-(4) mm long, ovate; keel dark, wide, ill-defined and mostly ± hoary with short white hairs; margins membranous and sometimes hoary. Sepals c. 3 mm long, ovate, pale and membranous except for the dark, well-developed, white-hairy keel; margins glabrous or sometimes ciliate, especially at apex. Corolla tube short; lobes 1.5-2 × c. 1.3 mm, broad-ovate. Capsule c. 3-(4) mm long, broad-ellipsoid to almost rhomboid. Seeds (2)-4, 1-2-(3) mm long, ± uniform, narrow.

N.: Poverty Bay coast, mainly Whangara Islet ( subsp. picta (Colenso) Sykes), coastal S. Hawke's Bay to Cape Palliser; S.: E. of the Main Divide from Marlborough to C. Otago, coastal to 1000 m ( subsp. spathulata).

Endemic.

Common in tussock grassland, especially damp areas near bogs, streams and lakes, also coastal and inland cliffs and gullies.

FL Oct-Feb.

 Subsp. picta is treated at specific rank as P. picta Colenso in Allan (1961). It was reduced in status because of its closeness to P. spathulata, the restricted population in Poverty Bay described as P. picta being merely a northward extension of the range of the much more widespread P. spathulata. Aerial parts of the 2 subspp. are very similar, especially when coastal populations of  subsp. spathulata growing on soft mudstone and clay are considered. The main difference is in the usual presence of a persistent primary taproot in  subsp. picta as compared to the short-lived one followed by a circle of adventitious roots in  subsp. spathulata. However, even this character is not completely reliable, because plants of  subsp. spathulata growing in similar habitats to those of  subsp. picta have a tendency to have more persistent primary roots.